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I  1.0VENANTERS 


J.  King  Hbwison 


THE    COVENANTERS 


^^^'^ 


TVoToemATvnc  bv  XLssBf  r  iB  juiran  ■ 


JAMF.S    GRAHAM,    FIRST  MARQUIS   OF  MnNTROSE. 


THE 

COVENANTERS 

A  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  IN  SCOTLAND  FROM 
THE  REFORMATION  TO  THE  REVOLUTION,  BY 

TAMES     KING    HEWISON 

M.A.,  D.D.  (edin.):  fellow  ofthe  society  of 

ANTIQUARIES  OF  SCOTLAND  :  EDITOR  OF  THE 
WORKS  OF  ABBOT  NINIAN  WINZET:  AUTHOR  OF 
'the  ISLE   OF  BUTE    IN    FHE   OLDEN   TIME,'  ETC. 

IN    TWO    VOLUMES 


VOLUME    II 


GLASGOW :  JOHN  SMITH  AND  SON 

1908 


Edinburgh  :  T.  and  A.  Constahle,  Printers  to  HJs  Majesty 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

SCOTLAND'S  THREE  RULERS— CHURCH,  CHARLES,  AND 
CROMWELL— 1650-1651 


King  Charles  subscribes  Covenant,  23rd 

June  1650  ..... 
Cromwell  invades  Scotland,  22nd  July 
Leslie's  Covenanted  host 
Purging  out  Malignants 
Lewdness  in  the  Cardan  age 
Cromwell's  pious  Declarations 
Skirmishes  before  Edinburgh 
Cromwell  retreats  to  Dunbar 
The  West  Kirk  Resolution,  13th  August 

1650 

Cromwell's  disclaimer  . 
Declaration  at  Dunfermline 
Deception  by  Charles  . 
Cromwell  in  a  trap  at  Dunbar 
Leslie's  position  at  Dunbar,  2nd  Sep 

tember 

Carelessness  of  the  Scots  army 

The  Battle  of  Dunbar,  3rd  September 

1650 

'  Dunbar  Drove' .... 
Cruel  fate  of  Scots  prisoners 
Cromwell  enters  Edinburgh,   7th  Sep 

tember 

Leslie's  troubles  .... 
The  Public  Resolutions 
James  Guthrie  and  the  Protesters 
The  King  under  surveillance 


9 

9 

10 


12 
13 

13 
14 

15 

16 
16 
17 
'7 
18 


'The  Start,'  4th  October  1650 

The  Forfar  Bond 

Collapse  of  Royalist  rising    . 

Whiggamore  conference  at  Dumfries 

The  Remonstrance — a  Western  Cove 

nant         ..... 
The  King's  vow   .... 
Whiggamores  crushed 
Origin  of  the  Resolulioners  . 
Church  ordains  fasting  and  humiliation 
Coronation  of  Charles  11.  at  Scone,  ist 

January  1651   . 
King  Charles's  oath      .         .         .  . 

The  secret  policy  of  Charles 
Charles  11.  and  Lady  Ann  Campbell     . 
Parliament  meets  at  Perth,  13th  March 

1651 

Act  securing  Covenanters     . 
Act  of  Classes  repealed,  2nd  June  1651 
Military  successes  of  Cromwell     . 
Charles    and    Scots   army    march    into 

England  .         .  .         .  .  . 

Battle  of  Worcester,  3rd  September  1651 
Wanderings  of  King  Charles 
Assembly  at  St.   Andrews,  Perth,  and 

Dundee  in  July         .         .         .         . 
Deposition  of  Protesters 


PAGE 
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^ 
32 

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VI 


THE  COVENANTERS 


CHAPTER  XIX 


THE  RULE  OF  THE  IRONSIDES— 1651-1660 


Cromwell's  '  crowning  mercy '       .  38 

Alured  captures  Scots  Council  at  Alyth  39 
Siege  of  Dundee,  ist  September  1651  .  39 
Subjugation  of  Scotland,  1652  .     40 

English  annexation  of  Scotland    .         -41 

'The  Tender' 41 

Appointment  of  English  judges  .     42 

Submission  of  Argyll    .         .  42 

Rival  Assemblies  in  Edinburgh,  1652  .  43 
Highlanders  rise  under  Glencairn,  1653  43 
Cromwell  appointed  Lord  Protector  44 

Edinburgh     Assembly     dissolved     by 

Colonel  Cotterel  .  .  .  -45 
Protest  of  Protesters ;  aggressiveness  of 

Protesters  .  .  .  .  .46 
Cromwell's  policy  .  .  -47 

Monck,  his  life  and  work,  1608-1670    .     47 


Dispersion  of  Royalist  forces 
Cromwell's  attempt  to  settle  religion 
Cromwell  supports  toleration 
Failure  of  Presbyterianism  in  England 
Advent  of  James  Sharp 
Envoys  of  the  Protesters 
Wariston  becomes  a  Cromwellian 
Death  of  Cromwell,  3rd  September  1658 
Accession  of  Richard  Cromwell,  1659 
Monck  at  Westminster 
Monck  prefers  Presbyterianism 
Sharp's  negotiations  and  craft 
Triumph  of  Hyde's  diplomacy 
Sharp's  share  in  the  Restoration 
Monck  a  cautious  plotter 
Resolutioners  congratulate  the  King 


48 
49 
5° 
51 
52 
S3 
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59 
60 
61 
62 
62 


CHAPTER    XX 


THE  RESTORATION— 1660  1661 


Popular  joy  at  the  Restoration,  May 
1660         ..... 

Sharp  plays  false,  June  1660 

The  office  of  Hyde      . 

The  arrest  of  Argyll 

The     King    reconstitutes     the     Scots 
Government    .... 

Severities  of  Privy  Council  . 

Return    of  Sharp ;    the   volte  face    of 
Lauderdale      .... 

Plan  of  the  treacherous  trio . 

Churchmen  grateful  and  jubilant 


64 

65 
67 
67 

68 
69 

70 

71 
72 


Inquisition  instituted  . 

Sharp  an  enigma 

Sharp's  sin  . 

EarlofMiddleton,  1619-1674 

First  Restoration  Parliament,   ist  Jan 

1661 

The  exhumation  and  burial  of  Montrose 
Statutes  of  166 1  . 
King  Charles,  Pope  of  Scotland  . 
Statute  repudiating  the  Covenant,  25th 

January  1661  . 
Rescissory  statute 


73 
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75 
76 

77 
78 

79 
80 

80 
81 


CONTENTS 


Act  concerning  religion 
Act  appointing  Restoration  Day 
Terror  created  by  new  statutes 
Argyll  summoned  to  trial 
Argyll's  indictment  and  defences 
Monck's  incriminating  letters 
Argyll  in  prison  . 
Argyll  on  the  scaffold,  27th  May 
Character  of  Argyll 
Leighton  toasts  Middleton  . 
Indictment  of  James  Guthrie 
Doom  of  Guthrie 


1661 


I'AGE 

81 

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82 

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86 

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88 

89 
90 


Guthrie  in  prison  .... 

Guthrie's    testimony   and    martyrdom, 

1st  June  1661  .         .  .         .         . 

Execution  of  Govan     .... 
The  summons  of  Samuel  Rutherford    . 
Death  of  Rutherford,  29th  March  1661 
Escape  of  Patrick  Gillespie  . 
Robert      MacWard      and      Alexander 

Moncrieff         .  .         .         .         . 

Robert  Trail,  James   Kirko,  Sir  John 

Chiesley,  and  Wariston     . 
The  Earl  of  Traquair,  a  beggar     . 


Vll 

i'AGE 
91 

92 

93 
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95 

96 

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98 


CHAPTER    XXI 

CONDITION    OF    THE    COUNTRY    IN    THE    SEVENTEENTH    CENTURY— 
THE  COVENANTERS  :  THE  GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  RESTORATION 


Buckle's  libel  of  the  Covenanters 

Donaldson,  pastor  of  Dalgety 

Virtues  of  the  Covenanters 

Music  and  mirth 

Scottish  sports   .... 

Humanitarianism  of  the  Covenanting 

ministry 
Wit  of  William  Guthrie 
Kindness  of  Covenanting  times 
Spiritual  condition  of  Scotland  (1649 

1661) 

Kirkton's  testimony  corroborated 

The  Three  R's  in  1642 

Pictures  from  Naphtali 

Survivals  of  Paganism 

Belief  in  spirits  ;  witchcraft 

Public  worship  . 

Results  of  Westminster  Assembly 


I'AGE 

lOI 
102 
102 
104 

106 
106 

108 
109 
109 

IIO 

1 1 1 

112 

114 


Innovations  in  church  services    . 

Gentlemen  of  the  Restoration 

Charles  11.  ;  James  11. 

Lauderdale ;  Rothes  . 

Scandalous  aristocracy 

Bankrupt  gentry 

Ruffians  of  the  law     . 

'  The    Muscovy    Beast ' ;    Sir    James 

Turner  ..... 
John  Graham  of  Claverhouse 
Carnal  Carolan  cavaliers    . 
Archbishop      Sheldon ;      Archbishop 

Sharp     .         .         .         .         .    • 
Archbishop  Burnet ;  Bishop  Paterson 
Character  of  Episcopal  clergy     . 
Character  of  the  persecuted  clergy 
Corrupt  rulers    .... 
Aims  of  Covenanting  agitators    . 


PAGE 
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IIS 
116 

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Vlll 


THE  COVENANTERS 


CHAPTER    XXII 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH— i66i 


Various  parties  in  Scotland 

Clerical  opposition  to  reconstruction 

of  Church       .... 
Synod  of  Fife,  2nd  April  1661    . 
Erastianisni  of  Aberdeen  Synod 
New  Church  legislation 
Sharp's  progress  in  defection 
Letter  of  Sharp   to    Middleton,   May 

1661 

Charles    resolves    to    restore  Episco 

pacy       ..... 
Royal  decree  proclaimed,  6th  Septem 

bar  1 66 1 
Protest  of  Robert  Baillie    . 
Blair  accuses  Sharp  of  treachery 
Ejectment  of  Blair  ;  his  death,  1666 
The  new  bishops 
Douglas  refuses  to  apostatise 
Sharp  apjiointed  Primate,   14th  Nov 

ember  1661    . 
Fairfull,     Archbishop     of     Glasgow 

Hamilton,  Bishop  of  Galloway 
Leighton,  Bishop  of  Dunblane    . 
Leighton,  a  hypochondriac  and  mystic 
Leighton  signs  the  Covenant  in  which 

he  did  not  believe  .... 
Scottish  hierarchy  consecrated  in  West- 
minster, 1 661  .  .  .  . 
Wishart,  Bishop  of  Edinburgh 
Consecration  of  other  bishops,  1662  . 
List  of  the  bishops  ;  their  emoluments 
The  prelates  carnal  .... 
The   second  session    of    Parliament, 

1662       ...... 

Re-establishment  of  Episcopacy 


I'AGE     , 

128  Act  of  Oblivion  .         .         .         . 
The    Billeting    Act,    9th    September 

129  1662       ..... 

129  Recall  of  Middleton  . 

130  Degradation  of  Solemn   League  and 

131  Covenant  at  Linlithgow 

131  Middleton  and  the  Court  visit  West 

Country  .... 

132  Edict  of  eviction  and  evil  effects  of 

the  proclamation    . 

133  Leighton's  diocesan  work   . 
Innovations  of  the  Prelates 

134  Robert  Baillie  dies  of  a  broken  heart 

135  August  1662  .... 

135  Carlyle's  portrait  of  Baillie 

136  Scotia  sub  Cruce  ... 

137  Eviction  of  Donald  Cargill 

138  Doom  of  Argyll  averted 
Eviction  of  John  Blackadder 

138   I   E,\pulsion  of  John  Welsh   . 

j   Parliament   summons    the    ministers; 

138  I        1662       ..... 

139  Thomas  Wylie  and  Hugh  M'Kail 

140  John  Brown  of  Wamphray 
John  Livingstone 

141  Fate  of  other  clergy    . 
Eviction  of  Presbyterian  clergy  . 

142  Andrew  Donaldson    . 

1 43  '  The  King's  Curates  ' 

144  Sir  Robert  Moray's  testimony     . 

145  Riots  at  churches 

146  Origin  of  the  Galloway  Rising 
The  Earlston  Gordons 

146  Peden  the  Prophet     . 

147  The  Lowlanders  incensed  . 


PACE 

148 


149 
150 

150 

'5' 

152 
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'54 

155 
'56 
156 
157 
158 
158 
159 

159 
160 
161 
162 
163 
.63 
164 
164 
'65 
165 
166 
167 
167 
16S 


CONTENTS 


IX 


CHAPTER    XXIII 

THE  RULE  OF  ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN- 

1663-1667 


The  mission  of  Lauderdale,  June  1663 

The  Duke  of  Rothes .... 

Session  of  Parliament,  1663 

Johnston,  Lord  Wariston ;  his  execu- 
tion; his  character  .         .        170- 

James  Wood's  testimony 

Sharp's  vindictiveness 

Fate  of  Middleton      . 

'  The  Bishops'  drag-net ' 

Proposed  synod 

'Twenty  Mile  Act,'  13th  August  1663 

Exactions  by  Government  officials 

Disturbances  in  Galloway  ;  Sir  James 
Turner,  1615-1686  . 

Changes  in  the  hierarchy    . 

Sharp  miserable 

Court  of  High  Commission,  1664 

Sharp  humbled  and  exalted 

The  new  Commission;  'The  Crail  Cou 

James  Scott  of  Ancrum's  case     . 

Cruelty  to  Alexander  Smith 

Sufferings    of    James    Hamilton    and 
Porterfield      .... 

William  Guthrie  of  Fenwick,  1620-65 

Spreul's  case      .... 

Foreign    politics    and   troubles    with 
Holland  and  France       .         .       185 

Measures  for  suppressing  the  Whigs    . 

Turner's  device  .... 

An  Apologetkal  Relation,  1665  . 

Cause  of  rising  in  the  Glenkens,  1666 

Rescue  by  Barscob    .... 

Muster  of  conventiclers 

Capture  of  Turner  in  Dumfries  . 
VOL.  a. 


69 
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84 

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86 

S7 
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89 

90 

91 
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92 


March  of  the  regulars  and  insurgents 

under  Commande:  James  Wallace 
Covenant  renewed  at  Lanark 
Insurgents  march  to  Edinburgh 
The  last  stand  at  Rullion  Green 
General  Dalyell's  position  . 
The  fight  on  Rullion  Green 
Captain  Paton's  heroism     . 
Losses  by  the  fight     . 
Sharp's  delight  after  the  victory 
Hugh  M'Kail's  fate    . 
Trial  and  execution  of  prisoners 
Neilson  of  Corsock    . 
Doom  of  Robertson  and  others 
M'Kail's  testimony     . 
Scene  at  M'Kail's  execution 
Gallant  ending  of  Colquhoun 
The  Justices  in  Glasgow  and  Ayr 
Sutherland,  the  Christian  hangman 
Sharp,  an  incubus  on  the  politicians 
Meeting  of  Parliament,  1667 
Atrocities  of  Dalyell  and  Drummond 
The  shooting  of  David  Finlay     . 
Villainies  of  the  soldiery    . 
Lauderdale's    investigations    and    .Sir 

Robert  Moray's  report,  July  9,  1667 
The    testimony   of    the   Covenanters 

corroborated  ..... 
The  resurrection  of  Sharp  . 
Conciliation  advocated  by  Moray 
Turner    discharged     and     Ballantine 

banished,  1668        .... 
Failure  of  Moray's  policy    . 
Michael  Bruce  and  Hog  of  Kiltearn   . 


194 

19s 
196 
196 
198 

199 
200 
201 
201 
203 
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205 
206 
207 
208 
2og 
209 
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21  r 

212 

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215 

216 
216 
217 

218 
219 
219 


THE  COVENANTERS 


CHAPTER    XXIV 

THE  SCHEMES  OF  ANGELIC  LEIGHTON  AND  IRON-HANDED 
LAUDERDALE— 1668-1678 


Robert  Leighton,  a  visionary 

The  Accommodation 

James     Mitchell,     '  stickit    minister, 

shoots  at  Sharp,  nth  July  166S 
Sharp  scared  out  of  his  wits 
Advent  of  Gilbert  Burnet  . 
A  conditional  Indulgence,  1669 
Opposition  of  irreconcilables 
A  new  western  Remonstrance     . 
The  new  Royal  Pope . 
Deposition  of  Archbishop  Alexande 

Burnet   ..... 
Bishop  Leighton's  '  Six  Evangelists  ' 
Parliament  of  July  1670 
New  'Clanking  Acts,'  1670 
Conference  at  Paisley,  14th  December 

1670 

Development  of  conventicling     . 
Blackadder's  reminiscences 
Gilbert  Burnet's  ingenious  project 
The  second  Indulgence,  2nd  Septeni 

ber  1672 
Lauderdale's  '  Queen  of  Love  ' 
Parliament,  June  1672 
Estimate  of  Leighton 
Clerical  victims  of  the  law 
Bishops  a  failure 
Rottenness  in  high  places  . 
Attacks  on  Lauderdale  frustrated 
Mitchell's   confession    and 

ment      .... 
Prison  on  the  Bass  Rock    . 
'The  Blynk,'  1674      . 
Capture  of  Peden 


nn  prison 


PAGE 
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222 


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231 

232 

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239 

239 

240 
241 

242 
243 
243 

244 


The  widows'  petition 
Fines,  escheats,  and  fugitations  . 
Case  of  Thomas  Forrester . 
Conformists  desire  a  National  Synod 
Sharp  and  Lauderdale  suppress  Bishop 

Ramsay  .... 

The  policy  of  iron  and  blood 
Letters     of     Intercommuning,      6th 

August  1675  .... 
Outlaws    in    Fife  —  Donald    Cargill 

Richard  Cameron  . 
John  Balfour — '  Burly' — of  Kinloch 
David  Hackston  of  Rathillet 
Brutal  torture  of  James  Mitchell,  167 
A  fresh  Inquisition,  ist  March  1676 
Convention  of  the  outed  clergy.  May 

1676       ..... 
The  Scots  Star  Chamber    . 
Ker  of  Kersland ;  Donaldson     . 
Exiles  in  Holland 

Assembly  of  Presbyterian  parties,  167 
James  Eraser  of  Brea 
Prisoners  on  the  Bass 
Conventicles      ....       2 
Lauderdale  in  Scotland,  1677     . 
Sir  George  Mackenzie  of  Ro.sehaugh 
Affair  at  Kinloch 
Scotland  under  martial  law,  1677 
Muster  of  the  Highland  host,  1678 
Return  of  Claverhouse,  1678 
'  The  Black  Bond  '     .         .         . 
March  of  the  Highlanders 
King  Charles  approves  of  the  exped; 

tion 


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245 
246 
247 

248 
249 

252 
253 
253 

255 

256 
257 

258 
258 

259 
260 
261 
61-263 
263 
264 
265 
266 
267 
267 
268 
269 

270 


CONTENTS 


XI 


Meeting  of  Parliament,  June  1678  .  271 
Trial  of  James  Mitchell,  7th  January 

1678 272 

Perjury  of  Privy  Councillors  .  -2  73 
Execution  of  Mitchell,   i8th  January 

t678 274 


Punishment  of  the  Whigs  . 

Scuffle  at  Whitekirk   . 

Blackadder's  conventicle  in  Irongray 

parish    ..... 
Invention  of  thumbscrews . 


275 
276 

276 
277 


CHAPTER    XXV 
THE  EXIT  OF  SHARP— 1679 


The  harrying  of  William  Veitch 
Stripping  conventiclers 
New  Commissioners  of  the  Peace 
Drubbing  of  Major  Johnston 
Enormities    of    Sheriff- depute    Car 

michael ..... 
Plot  to  dispatch  Sharp 
Deliberations  of  the  twelve  plotters 
The  final  labours  of  Sharp  . 
Sharp  on  the  road  to  St.  Andrews 


278  I   A  chase  and  a  deadly  assize  on  Sharp     286 

279  The  cou/>  de  grace,  ^rd  May  i6Tg       ..     287 

280  The  dispatch  of  Sharp  preconcerted    .     288 

281  Estimate  of  Archbishop  Sharp    .         .     289 
Vengeance   of  the   Government   and 

282  j       flight  of  the  assassins      .         .         .290 

283  Richard  Cameron  ;  the  irreconcilables     291 

284  I  Sir  Robert  Hamilton,         ,         .         .291 

285  Testimony  at   Rutherglen,    29th  May 

285  1679       ......     292 


CHAPTER    XXVI 


THE  RISE  OF  CLAVERHOUSE— 1678-1679 


Lineage  of  Graham  of  Claverhouse  .  294 
Views  of  Claverhouse  .  .  .  295 
Personal  appearance  of  Claverhouse  . .  296 
Morrison's  description  .  .  .  297 
Torfoot's  delineation  ;  a  serving-maid's 

reminiscences  .         .         .         .298 

Claverhouse    appointed    Sheriff;    his 

love  proposal  .         .         .         -299 

Drumclog  and  Loudoun  Hill  .  .  300 
Battle  of  Drumclog,  ist  June  1679  .  301 
Defeat  and  flight  of  Claverhouse         .     302 


Hamilton  and  the  'No Quarter'  order 
The  march  of  the  insurgents 
Victors  in  Glasgow  .... 
Hamilton,  a  feckless  general 
Divided  councils  .... 
The  Hamiltonians,  Extremists,  Moder- 
ates         

The  Hamilton  Declaration,  13th  June 

1679 

Arrival  of  Monmouth  and  an  army 
Bothwell  Bridge         .... 


3°3 
304 

305 
306 
306 


307 

307 
308 

309 


xu 


THE  COVENANTERS 


The  fight,  22nd  June  1679 
Stampede  of  Covenanters  . 
Surrender  of  a  craven  mob 
Prisoners  enter  Edinburgh 
Sufferings  in  Greyfriars'  Churchyard 
The  King's  gratitude 
The  Act  of  Indemnity 
Two  clerical  victims — Kid  and  King 
Trial  of  refusers  of  the  bond 


PAGH    I 

311 ! 
312  i 

3'4 
315  i 
3'6  I 
3'7  i 
318  i 


Thomas  Brown,  Andrew  Sword,  James 
Wood,  John  Waddell,  John  Clide, 
executed,  iSth  NovcmbLr  1679       .     319 
Favourites  enriched  with  forfeitures    .     320 
The  third  Indulgence  .         .         -321 

Indictment   of    Lauderdale    and    his 

policy 322 

Forfeiture   of  heritors    in  the  south- 
west        323 


CHAPTER     XXVII 


THE  REMNANT— 1679-1682 


Suffering,  the  cult  of  the  persecuted  . 
The  Duke  of  York  in  Holyrood,  1680 
Return  of  Richard  Cameron,  October 

1679 

Cargill,    Douglas,    and     otl^Li    field- 

preachers        .... 
Capture  and  death  of  He'nry  Hall 
The  Queensferry  Paper,  June  1680 
The  Sanquhar  Declaration,  22nd  June 

1680 

Tenor  of  the  Declaration    . 

Doom  of  Captain  Niving    . 

The  fight  at  Ayrsmoss,  22nd  July 

Fate  of  the  vanquished 

The  brutal  ending  of  Hackston  . 

Aftermath  of  Battle  of  Bothwell  Bridge 

At  Torwood,  Cargill  excommunicates 

the  King,  September  1680 
Execution    of    Skene,    Stewart,    and 

Potter 

Torture  of  Spreul       .         .         .         . 
The  Gibbites  or  Sweet  Singers  . 
Cargill  visits  Gibb      .         .         .         . 


324 

325 

325 

327 
328 

329 

329 
331 
332 
333 
334 
335 
336 

337 

338 
339 
340 
341 


PAGE 

The  Gibbites  in  Canongate  Tolbooth, 

1681-1682 342 

Blackadder  sent  to  the  Bass,  1681      .  343 

Gabriel  Semple  and  Fraser  in  prison  344 
Examination    of    Isobel    Alison    and 

Marion  Harvey       ....  345 
Executions    of    Alison   and    Harvey, 

Gougar,  Millar,  and  Sangster           .  346 

Hay  and  Pitilloh,  martyrs  from  Fife  .  347 

Capture  of  Cargill  by  Bonshaw  .         .  347 

Trial  of  Cargill  and  others                   .  348 

Death  of  Rothes        ....  349 
Cargill,  Smith,   Boig,   Thomson,   and 
Cuthill  on  the  scaffold,  27th  July 

1681 349 

Argyll's  ill-timed  interjection       .         .  350 
The  Parliament  of  168 1      .         .         -35' 

The  Test 352 

Paterson's      explication  ;      views      of 

clergy 353 

Argyll's  caveat ;  his  trial     .                  •  354 

Escape  of  Argyll        .         .  355 

Pranks  of  students  in  Edinburgh         .  355 


CONTENTS 


Xlll 


Impeachment  of  Hatton 
Six  fresh  victims 
Dalyell's  brutality 
Renwick's  bold  exploit 


.  356  Lanark     Declaration,     12  th    January 

•  356  j       1682 358 

•  357  ':   Unpopularity  of  the  Test    .         .         .  359 
.  358  Influence  of  the  Duke  of  York   .         .  360 


CHAPTER    XXVIII 


THE  POLICY  OF  ROPE  AND  GUN— 1682-1683 


Chancellor  Gordon,  a  rising  R(;yalist  . 
The  Marquis  of  Queensberry  ;  Moray 
Exit  of  Lauderdale,  24th  August  1682 
Agents  for  obliterating  dissent  . 
The  Reformed  Bishop 
Authorisation  of  Liturgy  . 
Archbishop  Ross  and  Bishop  Paterson 
Professor  Laurence  Charteris 
Wodrow's    stories    of    brutality    now 

corroborated  .... 
Invasion  of  Chcisley's  house  by  soldiers, 

1682 

Horrors  of  this  epoch 
Patrick  Walker's  youthful  exploit 
The  subjugator  of  the  westlands 
Method  of  Claverhouse 
Claverhouse's  opinion  of  the  situation 
Robbery  by  Claverhouse    . 
Convention  of  the  Societies,  June  168; 
Claverhouse  opposes  the  Dalrymples 
Triumph  of  Claverhouse     . 
Trials  of  Patrick  Vernor 
Henry  Erskine  .... 
Claverhouse  shoots  William  Graham 

1682  (?)  .... 

The  Despot's  Champion 
The  Graham  tragedies  in   the    IVod- 

rojv  MSS.       .... 


36 1 
362 
362 
363 
364 
364 
36s 
366 


367 
367 
368 

369 
370 
571 
372 
372 
373 
374 
374 
375 

376 
377 

378 


Chris 


De 


James  Gray's  case       .  .         .  , 

Robert  Nairn,  Bonhill 

The  '  Lady '  of  Cavers  ;  Ure  uf  Shar 

garton  and  other  prisoners 
The  Bloody  Vintage,  1682 
Execution  of  William  Harvey 

tian  Fyfe  sentenced  to  death  . 
Gray,  an  English  sufferer    . 
Three   Cargillites    hanged,    isth 

cember  1682  .... 
Intrepidity     of     Alexander     Home, 

martyr    ...... 

Reward  of  Claverhouse 

Variety  of  oppressors  and  oppressions 

Muir  of  Glanderston,  Michael  Potter, 

and  M'Gilligen       .         .         .         . 
Laurie  of  Blackwood 
Claverhouse  in  London  meddles  with 

the  policy  of  the  Crown 
Cruel  proclamation,  13th  April  1683 
The  last  offer  of  mercy 
Claverhouse  now  a  Privy  Councillor, 

1683 

Sufferings  of  the  Caldwell  family ;  John 

Nisbet  hanged         .         .         .         . 
John  Wilson's  testimony    . 
Children's  Covenants 
The  projected  Carolina  colony,  1682  . 


PAGE 
378 

379 

380 
381 

382 
383 

3  84 

385 
386 

3S7 

388 
3S9 

390 
39' 
39- 

393 

394 
395 
396 
397 


XII 


THE  COVENANTERS 


The  fight,  22i\d  June  1679 
Stampede  of  Covenanters  . 
Surrender  of  a  craven  mob 
Prisoners  enter  Edinburgh 
Sufferings  in  Greyfriars'  Churchyard 
The  King's  gratitude 
The  Act  of  Indemnity 
Two  clerical  victims — Kid  and  King 
Trial  of  refusers  of  the  bond 


l-AGE    j 

•     3 

lo  : 

1 

•     3 

n  1 

•     3 

12  [ 

•     3 

'3 

3 

14 

■     3 

'^  1 

•     3 

,6 

3 

'7 

•     3 

iS 

Thomas  Brown,  Andrew  Sword,  James 
Wood,  John  Waddell,  John  Glide, 
executed,  i8th  November  1679        •     3^9 
Favourites  enriched  with  forfeitures    .     320 
The  tliird  Indulgence  .         .         -321 

Indictment   of    Lauderdale    and    his 

policy 322 

Forfeiture   of  heritors    in  the  south- 
west        323 


CHAPTER     XXVII 


THE  REMNANT— 1679-16S2 


Suffering,  the  cult  of  the  persecuted  . 
The  Duke  of  York  in  Holyrood,  1680 
Return  of  Richard  Cameron,  October 

1679 

Cargill,    Douglas,    and     otlur    field 

preachers        ... 
Capture  and  death  of  Henry  Hall 
The  Queensferry  Paper,  June  1680 
The  Sanquhar  Declaration,  22nd  June 

1680 

Tenor  of  the  Declaration    . 

Doom  of  Captain  Niving    . 

The  fight  at  Ayrsmoss,  12nd  July 

Fate  of  the  vanquished 

The  brutal  ending  of  Hackston  . 

Aftermath  of  Battle  of  Bothwell  Bridge 

At  Torwood,  Cargill  excommunicates 

the  King,  September  1680 
Execution    of    Skene,    Stewart,    and 

Potter 

Torture  of  Spreul       .         .         .         . 
The  Gibbites  or  Sweet  Singers  . 
Cargill  visits  Gibb      .         .         .         . 


PAGE 

324  j 

325  i 

1 
I 

325 

327 
328  i 

329 

329 
331 
332 

333 
334 
335 
336 

337 

33^ 
339 
340 
341 


The  Gibbites  in  Canongate  Tolbooth, 
1681-1682 

Blackadder  sent  to  the  Bass,  1681 

Gabriel  Semple  and  Fraser  in  prison 

Examination  of  Isobel  Alison  and 
Marion  Harvey       .... 

Executions  of  Alison  and  Harvey, 
Gougar,  Millar,  and  Sangster 

Hay  and  Pitilloh,  martyrs  from  Fife 

Capture  of  Cargill  by  Bonshaw  . 

Trial  of  Cargill  and  others 

Death  of  Rothes 

Cargill,  Smith,  Boig,  Thomson,  and 
Cuthill  on  the  scaffold,  27th  July 
1681 

Argyll's  ill-timed  interjection 

The  Parliament  of  168 1 

The  Test  ...... 

Paterson's  explication ;  views  of 
clergy     ...... 

Argyll's  caveat ;  his  trial     . 

Escape  of  Argyll 

Pranks  of  students  in  Edinburgh 


342 
343 
344 

34S 

346 
347 
347 
348 
349 


349 
350 
351 
352 

353 
354 

355 
355 


CONTENTS 


xm 


Impeachment  of  Hatton 
Six  fresh  victims 
Dalyell's  brutahty 
Renwick's  bold  exploit 


356  i   Lanark     Declaration,     12th     January 


356 
357 


1682 
Unpopularity  of  the  Test 


.     358      Influence  of  the  Duke  of  York 


•  358 

•  359 

•  360 


CHAPTER    XXVIII 


THE  POLICY  OF  ROPE  AND  GUN— 1682-1683 


Chancellor  Gordon,  a  rising  Royalist  . 
The  Marquis  of  Queensberry  ;  Moray 
Exit  of  Lauderdale,  24th  August  1682 
Agents  for  obliterating  dissent  . 
Th^  Reformed  Bishop 
Authorisation  of  Liturgy  . 
Archbisho])  Ross  and  Bishop  Paterson 
Professor  Laurence  Charteris 
Wodrow's    stories    of    brutality    now 

corroborated 

Invasion  of  Chcisley's  house  by  soldiers, 

1682 

Horrors  of  this  epoch 
Patrick  Walker's  youthful  exploit 
The  subjugator  of  the  westlands 
Method  of  Claverhouse 
Claverhouse's  opinion  of  the  situation 
Robbery  by  Claverhouse    . 
Convention  of  the  Societies,  June  16S 
Claverhouse  opposes  the  Dalrymples 
Triumph  of  Claverhouse     . 
Trials  of  Patrick  Vernor 
Henry  Erskine  .... 
Claverhouse  shoots  William  Graham 

1682  (?) 

T/te  Despot's  Champion 

The  Graham  tragedies  in   the    Wod- 

row  MSS.      .... 


I'ACE 
361 
362 
362 
363 
364 
364 
365 
366 

366 

367 
367 
368 

369 
370 
371 
372 
372 

373 
374 
374 
375 

37f' 
377 

378 


James  Gray's  case      .... 

Robert  Nairn,  Bonhill 

The  '  Lady  '  of  Cavers  ;  Ure  uf  Shar- 
garton  and  other  prisoners 

The  Bloody  Vintage,  1682 

Execution  of  William  Harvey  ;  Chris- 
tian Fyfe  sentenced  to  death  . 

Gray,  an  English  sufferer    . 

Three  Cargillites  hanged,  151I)  De- 
cember 1682 

Intrepidity  of  Alexander  Home, 
martyr    ...... 

Reward  of  Claverhouse 

Variety  of  oppressors  and  oppressions 

Muir  of  Glanderston,  Michael  Potter, 
and  M'Gilligen       .... 

Laurie  of  Blackwood 

Claverhouse  in  London  meddles  with 
the  policy  of  the  Crown 

Cruel  proclamation,  131b  April  1683 

The  last  offer  of  mercy 

Claverhouse  now  a  Privy  Councillor, 
1683 

Sufferings  of  the  Caldwell  family  ;  John 
Nisbet  hanged         .... 

John  Wilson's  testimony    . 

Children's  Covenants 

The  projected  Carolina  colony,  1682  . 


378 
379 


381 

382 
383 

3  84 


3S5 
386 

387 


3S9 

390 
391 
392 

393 

394 
395 
396 
397 


XIV 


THE  COVENANTERS 


The  Rye  House  Plot,  1 683 ;  the  Courts 
on  Circuit      .... 

Bogue,  an  unworthy  martyr 

Claverhouse  demands  Bogue's  death 

Rescue  at  Inchbelly  Bridge,  8th  June 
1683 

Gallant  deaths  of  AVharry  and  Smith 

Renunciations  of  property 

The  Justiciary  Court  in  Edinburgh 
1 2th  July  1683 

Heroic  exit  of  Guillan 


j  Earlston  in  the  boots,  23rd  November 

398  I       1683 

399  Robert  Hamilton  condemned 

400  fififects  of  the  repressive  methods 

.\n    almost    incredible    statement   of 

401  Wodrow  substantiated ;  blockhouses 

402  I        for  Claverhouse      .... 

403  The  valiant  ending  of  John  Dick 
The   advent    of   James    Rcnwick    in 

404  September  1683      .... 
405 


40(1 

407 
408 


409 
410 

411 


CHAPTER    XXIX 


THE  ADVENT  OF  RENWICK :    CLAVERHOUSE  AND  THE 
KILLING  TIMES— 1683-1685 


Ubiquitous  Peden,  1626-1686  .  .  413 
James  Renwick,  1662-168S  .  413-415 
The  Societies  of  nonconformists  .  415 
Renwick's  call  and  fugitive  ministry  .  416 
A  new  drag-net  for  Covenanters  .     417 

Another  trio  hanged,  22nd  February 

1684 418 

Trial   of  slayers  of  Barscob,   March 

1684 419 

The  infamous  Cessnock  case  420 

Five  men  hanged  in  Glasgow      .         .421 
Nisbet  executed  .         .         .         .422 

Influential    sufferers ;    Captain    J<jhn 

Paton  of  Meadowhead  executed      .     423 
Chivalry  of  General  Dalyell         .         -423 
Prisons  crammed;  emptied  into  planta- 
tions      ......     424 

The  great  Porteous  roll  of  1684  .     425 

Claverhouse  woos  Jean  Cochrane  .  425 
Marriage  of  Claverhouse,   loth  June 

1684 426 

Shooting  of  Shillilau,  July  1684  427 


Government's 

national     discontent 
William      Spence  ; 


into 
torture     of 
'  thumbikins ' 


introduced,  23rd  July  1684  .  .  42S 
Claverhouse,   Dalyell,  etc.,   interested 

in  torture  of  Carstares     .  429 

Taiket  tortured  and  hanged  429 

Patrick  Walker's  experiences  .  .  430 
Ambuscade  and    rescue  of  prisoners 

in  Enterkin,  29th  July  1684  .  -431 
Heroes  of  the  ambuscade  .  -432 

Trial  and  execution  of  the  Enterkin 

rescuers          .....  433 

The  Campbells  of  Over-Wellwood      .  434 

A  red-letter  day,  6th  September  1684  435 
Changes  in  the  hierarchy,  and  death 

of  Burnet 436 

Claverhouse  credited  with  pity    .         .  437 

Minutes  of  the  autumn  Circuit  Courts  438 

The 'flies,' or  informers  .  .  .  439 
The    Apologetical     Declaration,    Sth 

November  1684       .         .         .  440 


CONTENTS 


XV 


Aims  of  the  Renwickian  party    . 
The  Abjuration  Oath,  25th  November 

1684 

Victims  at  the  altar    .... 
A  weird  incident         .... 
The  assassination  of  Peter  Peirson 
The  assassins     ..... 
Four    assenters    to   the    Declaration 

hanged  

James  Graham's  case 


PAGE 

PAGE 

441 

A  deadly  scuffle  at  Auchencloy,  i8th 

December  1684      ....     448 

442 

Claverhouse  exhumes  the  fallen  wan- 

443 

derers    449 

444 

Baillie  of  Jerviswood  ....     450 

445 

Trial  of  Baillie 451 

446 

Grizzel  Hume    .....     452 

A  new  commission,  1685    .         .         .     453 

447 

Instructions — warrant  for  drowning    .     454 

447 

CHAPTER    XXX 


THE  INLET  OF  POPERY— 1685-1688 


Claverhouse  and  Queensberry  quarrel  455 
General  Maitland's  extraordinary  testi- 
mony       456 

Grierson  of  Lag,  1657-1733        .         .  457 
Illustrations  of  recorded  brutalities  in 

1685 458 

Victims  of  the  law      ....  459 

The  heroic  death  of  Daniel  MacMichael  459 
Dispatch  of  William  Adam,  and   an 

execution  at  Paisley  .  .  .  460 
The  Lochenkit  martyrs  .  .  .461 
Death  of  Charles  n.,    6th    February 

1685 462 

James  vii.  proclaimed  King        .         .  463 

Fresh  vintage  of  blood        .         .         .  464 
March  of  prisoners  to   'The  Whigs' 

Vaults,'  Dunnottnr          .         .         .  465 

Horrors  wellnigh  incredible         .         .  466 
Shooting  of  Bell  and  others,  February 

1685 .167 

Shooting  of  William  Smith          .         .  468 

Trial  and  doom  of  Thomas  Ritchart  .  469 

The  Ingliston  tragedy         .         .         .  470 

Drummond's  commission   .         .         .  470 


Claverhouse  in  the  chase    . 

John  Brown — the  Christian  carrier 

Widow  Brown's  account  of  the  murder 

on  May  Day  .... 
The  Wigtown   martyrdom,    2nd  May 

1685 

Appeals  to  the  Privy  Council 

Two  sacrifices  al  the  stake 

The    Mauchline    tragedy,    6th    May 

1685 

Westerhall   and  Claverhouse  execute 

Hislop  ..... 
Martyrdoms  unrecorded  by  Wodrow 
Brigadier  Graham  chases  Renwick 
Three  Polmadie  victims 
Betrayal  of  James  Kirko    . 
William,  first   Duke  of  Queensberry 

16371695      .... 
The  rival  Parliament  of  Blackgannoch 
Protestation  at  Sanquhar    . 
The  Renwickites  refuse  to  join  Argyll 
Argyll  sets  sail,  2nd  May  1685    . 
The  fiery  cross  fails    . 
Capture  and  execution  of  Argyll       488-489 


FACE 
471 
472 

473 

474 

475 
476 

477 

478 

479 
480 
48 1 
482 

483 
484 

485 
486 

487 
488 


XVI 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Fate  of  Monmouth  and  Rumbold 
Execution  of  Archer  .... 
Ear-lopping;  death  of  General  Dalyell; 

'  The  White  Flag  of  the  Devil ' 
The  MacLellans  of  Barmagechan 
Captain  John  Nisbet  hanged 
Queensberry  under  a  shade 
Shooting  of  Steel,  20th  December  16S6 
The  King's  veiled  projects 
Deposition  of  Archbishop  Cairncro.ss 
Renwick  interviews  Peden 
Death  of  Peden  .... 

An  Informatory  Vindication 


I'AGK 

PAGE 

490 

Growth  of  Romanism 

. 

503 

491 

Effects  of  the  royal  Irenicon 

504 

Prosecution  of  Gilbert  Burnet 

505 

492 

The  grand  oblation    . 

506 

493 

Capture    of    Renwick,    ist    February 

494 

1688      .... 

506 

496 

Trial  of  Renwick 

507 

497 

Renwick  in  prison 

508 

498 

Renwick  on  the  scaffold 

509 

499 

Appreciation  of  Renwick    . 

Sio 

500 

Thomas  Carlyle  on  Renwick 

5" 

501 

The  last  martyr — George  Wood 

(July 

502 

16S8?)  .... 

. 

512 

CHAPTER    XXXI 


THE  REVOLUTION— 1688-1690 


PAGE 

A  tottering  throne      .         .         .         -513 
Declaration   by   ^Villiam    of  Orange, 

October  1 688  .         .         .         .514 

The      Society-men      testify      against 

Jacobites  and  Dutch  .  .  •  S'S 
Representative  conventions  .  -516 
Melee  at  Holy  rood  .  .  .  -517 
Society-men  and  rabbling  .  .  .518 
Liberation  of  Alexander  Gordon  .  519 
Covenant  subscribed  at  Lesmahagow  520 
Convention    of  Scots    Estates,    14th 

March  1689 521 

Viscount  Dundee's  intrigues  and  ex- 
ploits    ......     522 

Proclamation  of  William  and  Mary    .     523 
Origin  of  the  Cameronian  regiment    .     524 
King  William  repudiates  the  persecut- 
ing clause       .....     525 

Settlement  of  the  Church  .         .         .     525 
The  Pass  of  Killiecrankie  .         .         .     526 


PAGE 

Mackay's  position  .  .  .  -527 
The  fall  of  Dundee  ....  528 
Flight  of  Mackay  ....  529 
Estimate  of  Dundee  ....  530 
'The  Sacred  Band' at  Dunkeld  .  531 
Proclamations  in  1689  .  .  -532 
The  surprising  restraint  of  Presby- 
terians    533 

Fate  of  the  hierarchy  .         .         .     534 

The  deadness  of  the  Church       .         .     535 

'The  Club' 536 

Act  ratifying  confession  and  settling 

Presbyterian  Church  government  .  537 
Abolition  of  patronage  .  .  -538 
Petition  of  the  persecuted  .  .  .  539 
The  General   Assembly   meets,    i6tli 

October  1690          .         .         .         .540 
Purpose  of  the  Covenants  .        .        .541 
Opinions     of    Burns,     Froude,     and 
Carlyle 54 '"542 


APPENDICES 


XVll 


APPENDICES 


I.  Literary  Men  and  their  Works 

from  1625  till  1690  .  .     543 

II.  Epitaphs  on  the  Monuments  of 
some  of  the  most  famous  of 
the  Martyrs     .  .         -55° 

III.  The  United  Societies  -557 


IV. 

The  Cess 559 

V. 

The  Wodrow  MSS.    .         .         .560 

VI. 

Acts  of  Parliament  repealed  in 

1906 560 

VII. 

Ordination    in    the   Church    of 

Scotland          .         .         -         .564 

Index    . 


56s 


ERRATA 

Vol.  i.  p.  481,  1.  38,>r  'Rep.  ix.'  read  '  Rep.  xi.' 

„      p.  496,  1.  34,  y&y 'laeVearf '  Jac' 
Vol.  ii.  p.  501,  1.  II,  for  'churchyard'  read  'cemetery.' 

„      p.  513,  1.  14,  delete  '  T^e.' 

„      p.  550,  1.  19,  afler  '  Societies '  read  '  Hugh  Clark.' 


VOL.  II. 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

James,  Marquis  of  Montrose  ......  Frontispiece 

Vignette,  The  Netherbow  Port      ......       Tiikpage 

The  Covenants  subscribed  by  King  Charles  II.  in   1650,  and 

Kirk  Session  Record  of  Kirkinner  Parish  .  .  .      Facingpage        2 

Royalist  and  Covenanting  Leaders  ....  ,<  64 

John  Graham  of  Claverhouse — Viscount  Dundee.         .  .  „  122 

From  the  Portrait  in   Melville  House.      By  the  permission  of 
Mrs.  Milbank. 

The  Pentland  Rising — From  Dalry  to  Rullion  Green  .  „  192 

The  Grassmarket,  Edinburgh,  and  Monuments  of  Martyrs     .  „  220 

Portrait  of  Balfour  of  Kinloch — 'Burly'  ...  „  252 

By  the  permission  of  Charles  Pearson,  Esq.,  Alloa. 

Effigy   of   Archbishop   Sharp   in   the   Parish  Church   of   St. 

Andrews  ........  »  288 

Portraits  of  Claverhouse,  Leven,  and  Balfour  .  .  „  298 

Battle  of  Bothwell  Bridge  .....  ,,  3'° 

From  an  Engraving  of  an  old  Picture  in  possession  of  the  Duke 
of  Buccleuch. 

Memorable  Scenes  and  Places  of  Burial  ...  „  35° 

Declaration  that  the  Covenant  was  Illegal     ...  „  400 

Enterkin  Pa.ss  .......  „  43° 

From  a  Photograph  by  the  Author. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Martyrs'  Graves  in  St.  John's  Churchyard,  Dalry 
From  a  Photograph  by  the  Author. 

An  Act  against  Conventicle-Preachers,  etc. 

Monuments  of  the  Martyrs  .... 

Peden's  Grave  and  other  Historic  Spots 

Letter  from  James  Renwick  .... 

Preserved  in  the  New  College  Library,  Edinburgh. 

Battlefield  of  Killiecrankie         .....  „  526 

From  a  Photograph  by  Mr.  G.  W.  Wilson,  Aberdeen. 


XIX 

itigpage 

448 

>f 

453 

i> 

470 

91 

500 

)] 

Sio 

HISTORY    OF    THE    COVENANTERS 

CHAPTER    XVIII 

Scotland's  three  rulers — church,  Charles,  and  cromwell 

Charles  arrived  at  Speymouth  on  the  23rd  June  1650.     Before  he  King  Charles 
was  permitted  to  place  a  foot  on  Scottish  soil  he  was  required  to  swear  covenant, 

and  subscribe  both  Covenants.     He  wished  to  subscribe  with  reserva-  23rd  June 

1650. 

tions,  and  stru^crled  hard  to  be  freed  from  the  clause  which  bound 
him  to  give  legal  sanction  to  the  Presbyterian  system  in  both  England 
and  Ireland  whenever  he  ascended  the  southern  throne.  His  opposi- 
tion gave  rise  to  angry  discussions  on  Sabbath  morning  before  sermon. 
The  Commissioners  were  inexorable.  At  length  Charles  appeared  to 
surrender,  and  accepted  the  bitter  terms.  He  vowed  to  be  a  Kirk-man. 
This  compliance  grieved  John  Livingstone,  the  preacher  and  exhorter 
that  day,  and  he  craved  delay  because  he  realised  the  King's  hypo- 
crisy in  accepting  the  Covenants  'without  any  evidence  of  any  reall 
change  in  his  heart,  and  without  forsaking  former  principles,  counsells, 
and  company.' '  Livingstone  was  overruled  and  Charles  was  permitted 
to  perjure  himself,  thus  bringing  guilt,  according  to  Livingstone,  on 
'the  Church  and  realm.'  'Our  sin  was  more  than  his,'  confessed 
Jaffray.^  In  Parliament,  then  sitting  in  Edinburgh,  two  of  the  Com- 
missioners, '  Brodie  and  Libertone,  made  a  full  relation  of  all  ther 
negotiation  with  his  Maiestie  ;  they  producit  the  couenant,  withe  the 
Churche  explanation,  subscriued  with  the  Kinge's  hand,  as  also  the 
Concessions  subscriued  by  his  Maiestie.'  ^ 

*  'Livingstone's  Account,'  Select  Biog.,  i.  183 ;  Rec.  Com.  Gen.  Assent.,  ii.  437. 
2  Diayy,  55. 

'  1st  July  1650  :  Balfour,  Annals,  iv.  67.     For  Breda  propositions,  cf.  deed  in  C!ar.  State 
Pap.  (June-September  1650),  55,  56,  57  (Bodleian  Library).     King  Charles  ii.  subscribed  the 

VOL.  n.  A 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Rejoicings 
on  the 
arrival  of 
Charles  n. 


Progress  of 
Charles. 


Official  deputations  of  clergy  and  Parliament-men  soon  arrived  to 
welcome  Charles.  The  people,  ignorant  of  the  deceit  practised  upon 
them,  were  excited  with  joy  at  the  news  of  the  coming  of  their  Prince. 
Edinburgh,  in  particular,  was  riotous  with  enthusiasm  expressed  by 
crackling  bonfires,  clanging  bells,  blaring  trumpets,  yelling  dancers, 
and  jovial  kail-wives.^  Contrary  to  the  orders  of  Parliament,  Charles 
had  brought  with  him  a  retinue  of  Malignants,  who  were  compelled 
to  hive  off  and  seek  safety  abroad.  Only  a  select  coterie,  including 
Buckingham,  Wentworth,  Wilmot,  Sir  Edward  Walker,  Chiffinch, 
was  allowed  to  remain.  The  following  Scots  were  forbidden  to 
accompany  Charles  until  they  had  given  satisfaction  to  Church  and 
State  :  Hamilton,  Lauderdale,  Seaforth,  Callendar,  Forth,  Dumfries, 
St.  Clair,  Napier,  Sir  Robert  Dalziel,  Thomas  Dalyell  of  Binns, 
Lockhart,  Charteris  of  Amisfield,  Monro,  and  Cochrane,  This  rigour 
was  long  remembered  and  repaid  with  usury  by  these  political  convicts 
when  the  tables  were  turned  in  1660. 

Charles  had  entered  into  a  tutelage  which  he  little  anticipated.  His 
progress  to  Falkland  Palace,  of  evil  memory,  by  way  of  Aberdeen, 
Dunnottar,  Kinnaird,  St.  Andrews,  was  officially  appointed.  In 
Aberdeen  he  passed  under  the  uplifted  arm  of  Montrose,  but  there  is 
no  record  that  the  heartless  opportunist  felt  any  qualms  at  the  gruesome 
sight.  He  reached  Falkland  on  5th  July.  One  of  his  first  acts  was 
personally  to  instruct  the  Lyon-King  as  to  a  design  for  new  colours 
for  the  Life  Guards.    The  motto  selected  was  significant  :   '  Covenant, 

Oath  and  Covenants  more  than  once.  First,  on  26th  March  (O.S.  5th  April)  1650  at  Breda,  he 
subscribed  the  original  terms  of  the  Oath.  On  23rd  June  he  subscribed  both  Covenants  and 
the  terms  of  the  Declaration  changed  to  include  the  words,  '  Acts  of  Parliament,  Bills  or 
Ordinances,  past  or  to  be  past.'  The  deed  was  signed  'aboard  the  Skiiiain  of  Amsterdam 
lying  at  anchor  at  the  mouth  of  Spay,  Sabboth,  23  Junii  1650,'  according  to  John  Livingstone 
{Rec.  Com.  Gen.  Assctii.,  ii.  368,  370,  382,  392,  403,  438).  The  Covenants,  with  the  Declara- 
tion, as  signed  by  Charles — the  deed  which  is  preserved  in  the  Bodleian  Library  {Clarendon 
MSS.,  40  f.  80) — shows  the  Oath  amended  on  the  margin  and  signeted  by  Charles  (cf.  photo- 
graphic facsimile  in  this  volume  facing  page  2),  so  that  I  conclude  that  it  was  signed  after  20th 
May  1650,  and  in  all  likelihood  on  the  23rd  June.  It  is  endorsed  by  Archibald  Johnston, 
Clerk-Register,  and  Andrew  Ker,  Clerk  of  the  Assembly.  It  was  read  in  Parliament  on  ist  July 
1650  {Aci.  Pari.  Scot.,  VI.  ii.  jgS),  and  Johnston  was  ordered  to  preserve  it.  Eleven  days  later 
it  was  also  produced  in  the  General  Assembly.  Cf.  Appendix  iv.  vol.  i. 
'  Nicoll,  16,  17. 


^ 


V^^».*'.<<</A/«.-..^  ■ 

-  ,:.  K  y.  .... 

,  ..,..yc,^.../,./., ,, ■ 

■    m. 

hi.:. 

A^ 

i  hi;  L'ovenaiils  signed  by  Charles  Ii.  at  Speyiiioutii 


p'-'^'- 


\^W" 


I'ayc-  ol   U 

.;    KiiL  S, 

■    ■    |i   Jl 

Ki  ,  1,1. 

ip 


(."^y) 


■"-*^    "-"-    -*'^  fj^ lUS.^l-^-f 


i 


Jo,  L^f^t  Y o^u  1.'-^ , 


^r^-. 


,5? 


I   Kukinner,  \\ii,lu\\ii  (17111,  giving  .111  Accuuiu  o(  lliu  Mailjidoii.  of 
Margaret  Lauchlison — one  of  the  Wigtown  Martyrs 


SCOTLAND'S  THREE  RULERS  3 

For  Religion,  King  and  Kingdomes.'     Charles  was  fast  developing 
into  a  polished  dissimulator. 

Cromwell  had  already  been  recalled  from   Ireland,  where  he  had  Cromweii 

..  _^,,,.         .  invades  Scot- 

constituted  himself  the  well-paid  minister  oi  Gods  justice  to  avenge  i^n^,  22nd 

the  massacres  of  the  saints  in  1641,  and  had  completely  subjugated  J^'y- 
that  miserable  isle.^  The  English  Parliament,  rightly  interpreting 
all  these  sinister  movements  in  the  north  to  be  a  menace,  determined 
to  strike  the  first  blow  and  to  invade  Scotland.^  General  Fairfax  had 
conscientious  scruples  regarding  this  unconstitutional  procedure,  and 
declined  the  duty  of  leading  the  army.  Cromwell,  having  consulted 
the  Psalms,  found  the  necessary  authority  to  take  command  in  the 
hope  that  the  Lord  would  '  enable  this  poor  worm  and  weak  servant 
to  do  His  will.' 

Cromwell  crossed  the  Tweed  on  22nd  July  with  a  force  of  10,500 
foot  and  5500  horse.  A  naval  squadron  supported  him  along  the 
coast.^  In  ordinary  circumstances  this  was  no  formidable  host  for 
Scotland  to  oppose  with  the  20,000  regulars  and  levies  who  assembled 
on  the  Links  of  Leith  under  David  Leslie,  Cromwell's  comrade  at, 
and  the  hero  of,  Marston  Moor.  Cromwell's  merciless  massacres  in 
Ireland  had  conferred  on  him  a  notoriety  as  fearful  as  the  plague.  It 
was  Leslie's  safest  plan  to  avoid  the  terrible  Ironsides.  The  Scots 
soon  transformed  into  wastes  those  districts  through  which  the  invaders 
might  pass,  thus  making  local  victualling  impossible.  None  capable 
of  bearing  a  weapon  stayed  to  provoke  a  fight.  The  Covenanting  Leslie's 
host,  however,  wanted  the  strength  and  unity  of  former  national  armies,  ""^"""'^ 
Before  the  campaign  began,  the  purgation  of  the  public  services  was 
carried  out,  on  the  demand  of  the  Assembly's  Commission,  and  after- 
wards of  the  Assembly,  by  the  removal  from  the  army  '  of  all  men  of  a 
scandalous  conversatione,  and  of  a  questionable  integrity  and  affectione 
in  the  cause  of  God.'  ■*     This  mistaken  policy  weakened  the  army  of 

•  His  salary  was  ;{;45,ooo :  Cal.  State  Pap.  (Charles  II.),  i.  45. 
2  On  31st  July  1650  the  English  Council  ordered  the  demolition  of  the  statues  of  James 

and  Charles,  and  the  publication  of  this  inscription:  '  Exit  Tyrannus  Regum  ultimus  anno 
primo  restilutae  libertatis  Angliae,  1648' ;  ibid.,  ii.  261.  ^  Whitelocke,  Memoirs,  i.  450-71. 

*  Peterkin,  620.     It  is  said  5000  men  were  cast  out  :  Cal.  State  Pap.,  ii.  324. 


host. 


Malignants 


4  THE  COVENANTERS 

defence  in  numbers,  fighting  power,  and  experience — many  capable 
ofiicers  and  privates  being  set  aside.  Probably  Whitelocke  was  re- 
cording incredible  gossip  when  he  mentioned  that  some  ministers  in 
their  prayers  said,  that  '  if  God  did  not  deliver  them  from  the  Sectaries 
He  would  not  be  their  God  any  longer.' ' 

Round  the  Capital  Leslie  made  strenuous  exertions  to  oppose 
Cromwell.  A  great  entrenchment,  strengthened  with  redoubts,  was 
cut  from  the  foot  of  the  Canongate  to  the  Port  of  Leith,  and  behind 
it  encamped  the  Scots,  from  Broughton  village  to  St.  Leonard's  Craigs. 
Purging  out  The  Lammas  floods  befriended  the  Scots.  The  Covenanters  have 
often  been  severely  criticised  for  their  intolerant  suppression  of  the 
Malignant  faction  at  this  juncture.  But  extant  records  prove  that 
Scotland  was  being  threatened  with  a  repetition  of  that  moral  decadence 
which  a  hundred  years  before  sorely  exercised  Queen  Mary  and  ruined 
the  Church.  The  nobility,  gentry,  and  clergy  included  many  profligate 
members.  The  '  Old  Man '  was  much  in  evidence.  The  advent  of 
Charles  ii.  alone  was  needed  to  popularise  wickedness  in  Royalist 
society,  and  bring  about  that  recrudescence  of  vice  justly  feared  by 
the  Covenanters.  As  yet  the  '  gracious  '  Lauderdale  was  not  '  swollen 
with  gluttony  and  brutalised  with  vice  ' ;  ^  nor  was  young  Rothes — '  un- 
happily made  for  drunkenness,'  as  Burnet  wrote — who  afterwards  was 
both  and  worse,  indulging  that  sin  they  blamed  his  stricter  father  for  : 

'  In  the  old  cause  your  father  led  the  van, 
But  you  bring  up  the  rear  with  Lady  Ann.'^ 

The  gallant  soldier  Nathaniel  Gordon  had  already  been  processed 
for  adultery,  and  the  similar  scandals  of  Chancellor  Loudoun  and 
Ludovick  Lindsay,  Earl  of  Crawford,  were  coming  into  court.* 

The  wanton  imitators  of  the  Merry  Monarch  had  many  precursors 
and  imitators,  over  whose  unsavoury  lives  it  might  be  better  to  draw 
a  veil.  It  is  to  the  national  credit  that  there  survived  some  honest 
and  fearless  men  who  were  willing  to  tear  the  blister  from  the  front 

'  Memoirs,  i.  465.  ''■  Pref.  Lauderdale  Papers.  ^  Ballad,  Mitchers  Ghost. 

■■^Gordon,  Keith,  150,  426  ;  Lament,  Diary,  38,  130  ;  Scot,  Staggering  State,  24. 


SCOTLAND'S  THREE  RULERS  5 

of  virtue/  The  Commission  of  Assembly,  which  was  very  represen- 
tative, influential,  and  large,  busied  itself  putting  the  stringent  Acts 
against  Engagers  into  operation  in  the  autumn.  In  the  visitation  of 
lax  Presbyteries  they  found  and  deposed  many  ministers  and  teachers 
guilty  of  vices  incompatible  with  their  offices,  as  well  as  doubtful 
characters  whose  chief  fault  seems  to  have  been  preference  for  the 
Royalist  policy."  The  growing  lewdness  of  the  Carolan  age  had  even  Lewdness  in 
crept  into  manses  and  destroyed  the  usefulness  of  preachers,  who  ^  "° 
incurred  deposition  for  inefficiency,  drunkenness,  and  immorality. 
With  few  exceptions  the  deposed  Malignants  were  of  no  distinction. 
More  notable  were  :  Henry  Guthry,  minister  of  Stirling,  who  had 
been  a  member  of  the  High  Commission  in  1634,  was  a  noisy  zealot 
in  the  Assembly,  and  survived  to  become  Bishop  of  Dunkeld  after 
the  Restoration ;  Andrew  Ramsay,  the  sturdy  opponent  of  Laud's 
Liturgy,  now  senile  and  dotard,  vented  silly  views  regarding  Pres- 
bytery and  law  ;  William  Colvin,  also  an  Edinburgh  minister,  was  as 
loquacious  a  wire-puller  in  the  Assembly  as  he  was  sly  in  concealing 
his  Royalist  leanings.^  Scandalous  facts  like  these  grieved  earnest 
men  such  as  George  Gillespie,  who  on  15th  December  1648,  on  his 
death-bed,  gave  a  testimony  declaring  the  Malignant  party  to  be  '  the 
seed  of  the  Serpent.'  * 

'  Qi.  postea.  Chapter  xxi.  -  Rec.  Com.  Gen.  Assent.,  ii.  125.  '  Peterkin,  592. 

■*  On  14th  April  1650  the  Earl  of  Buchan  'did  stand  up  in  his  daske,'  in  Auchterhouse 
Church,  confessed  his  sin  of  Engaging,  held  up  his  hand,  swore  to  the  Covenant,  and  sub- 
scribed it.  In  the  same  place  fifteen  years  afterwards  his  widow,  Marjory  Ramsay,  Countess 
of  Buchan,  confessed  the  sin  of  immorality  with  the  parish  minister,  James  Campbell,  who 
also  had  to  sit  on  the  repentance  pillar,  December  1665  {Kirk-Sess.  Rec. ;  Inglis,  Annals  of 
Auchterhouse,  108,  131,  132).  'At  Bottarie,  15  Martii  1648,  The  Lady  Altar,  Jean  Gordon,' 
was  accused  'of  ane  barne  in  adulterie  to  Nathaniel  Gordon,  and  also  of  ane  uther  bairne  in 
fornication  with  Captain  Mortimer.'  'May  21,  1651,  Elspeth  Crukshanks,  Botarie,  confessed 
adultery  with  Ludovick  Lindsay,  Earl  of  Crawfurd  '  {Pres.  Rec.  Strathbogie  ;  J.  F.  S.  Gordon, 
Keith,  150,  426).  Patrick  Graham  of  Inchbrakie,  the /it/us  Achates  of  Montrose,  an  old  man 
in  1678,  knelt  in  the  church  of  Auchterarder,  confessing  immorality,  gave  money  to  the  poor 
and  to  Christian  prisoners  in  Turkey,  and  on  the  bishop's  recommendation  was  absolved 
(Sess.  Rec.  of  Auchterarder,  anno  1678).  '  Patrick  Lesley,  Lord  of  Londors,  was  never  married, 
but  had  aboue  67  basse  children  '  (Balfour,  Annals,  12th  August  1649,  iii.  423).  '  1651,  Jun. 
.  .  .  The  Commission  of  the  kirk  satt  at  Stirling,  att  which  tyme  Chancelour  Campbell 
(Loudoun)  was  brought  up  before  them  and  challenged  for  adulterie  with  ane  Major  Jhonston's 
wife,  surnamed  Lindsay.  This  Jhonston  was  he  that  went  in  shortlie  before  to  Cromwell,  and 
reveilled  to  him  the  purpose  of  a  pairtie  of  our  armie  that  went  forth  to  beat  up  his  quarters ' 
(Lament,  Diary,  31). 


pious  Declara 
tions. 


6  THE  COVENANTERS 

If  purgation  led  to  the  disintegration  of  the  Covenanted  host  in 
Scotland,  as  has  been  often  asserted,  Cromwell  found  it  to  be  a 
method  of  selection  of  the  fittest  which  rendered  his  Ironsides  both 
stable  and  invincible. 

On  his  northward  march  Cromwell,  '  a  God-intoxicated  man,'  com- 
posed and  dispatched  various  Declarations,  '  To  all  that  are  saints 
Cromwell's  and  Partakers  of  the  Faith  of  God's  Elect  in  Scotland,'  and,  'To  the 
People  in  Scotland,'  repudiating  the  false  accusations  by  Scottish 
enemies,  that  the  Sectaries  were  brutal  monsters,  further  asserting 
that  in  Charles  ii.  there  was  no  salvation  possible,  and  assuring 
them  that  the  English  had  come  to  fight  for  the  substance  of  the 
Covenant.*  Replies  and  counter- replies  passed  to  and  fro."  This 
correspondence  called  forth  the  oft-quoted  letter  of  Cromwell,  dated 
Musselburgh,  3rd  August  1650,  in  which  he  accused  the  Scottish 
leaders  of  having  '  a  carnal  confidence  upon  misunderstood  and 
misapplied  precepts,  which  may  be  called  spiritual  drunkenness.' 
This  insobriety  deluded  them  with  the  idea  that  their  policy  was 
established  'upon  the  Word  of  God.'  He  inquired,  'Is  it  therefore 
infallibly  agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God,  all  that  you  say  ?  I 
beseech  you,  in  the  bowels  of  Christ,  think  it  possible  you  may  be 
mistaken.  .  ,  .  There  may  be  a  Covenant  made  with  Death  and 
Hell  :   I  will  not  say  yours  was  so.'^ 

Two  days  later  the  '  scornful  men  '  of  the  Covenant  answered  the 
'  blasphemer ' — such  many  styled  Cromwell — with  an  emphatic  dis- 
claimer of  Malignancy,  which  but  made  matters  worse.  Some 
influential  members  of  the  extreme  section  of  the  Covenanters — 
Colonels  Ker,  Strachan,  and  others — were  not  averse  to  contemplating 
an  alliance  with  the  Cromwellians  in  the  event  of  the  King  not 
accepting  their  demands.  But  the  unforeseen  action  of  the  unscrupu- 
lous Sovereign  in  consenting  to  promote  the  Covenants  was  a 
disappointment  to  Cromwell  and  to  these  concordant  friends  in  the 
opposing  camp. 

'  Aldis,  List,  1407,  Declaration  of  the  Army  upon  tJieir  March,  etc, 
'^  Reply  1431  ;  other  Replies,  1410,  141 1,  1417,  1428,  1429. 
'  Cromwell,  Letter  cxxxvi. 


SCOTLAND'S  THREE  RULERS  7 

Cromwell  came  into  contact  with  Leslie's  insuperable  barrier  on  Skirmishes 
29th  July,  and  the  Scots  had  as  little  difficulty  in  rolling  back  his  burgh. 
weary  and  wet  troops  to  their  fortified  camp  at  Musselburgh  as  they 
in  turn  repulsed  the  assault  on  it  two  days  later.^  The  King,  on  the 
invitation  of  the  Earl  of  Eglinton,  came  from  Stirling  to  Leith,  where 
he  was  received  with  an  enthusiasm  which  disconcerted  the  Govern- 
ment. They  permitted  him  to  watch  the  first  conflict  from  the  Castle, 
but  were  uneasy  until  he  had  left  the  lines.  The  extremists  believed 
his  presence  would  blight  the  holy  army.^  He  was  forced  to  retire 
to  Dunfermline  to  prevent  intrigues.  Meantime  the  Committee  of 
Purging  was  busy  weeding  out  eighty  officers  and  three  thousand  of 
the  rank  and  file  who  were  tainted  with  Malignancy  and  other 
offences  distasteful  to  Covenanting  purists — a  handful  of  the  elect 
being  deemed  more  invincible  than  a  legion  of  those  lost  by  un- 
pardonable sin. 

Cromwell,  having  retired  to  Dunbar  to  replenish  his  commissariat,  Cromweii 
returned  to  Musselburgh,  whence  he  made  a  wide  flank  movement  to  Dunbar. 
the  west,  as  he  intended  to  assault  Leslie  to  the  rear  of  his  own  lines. 
He  camped  upon  the  Braid  Hills  and  watched  Leslie  from  Blackford 
Hill.  Leslie  would  not  be  tempted  to  a  general  engagement. 
A  strategist,  and  knowing  the  ground  well,  Leslie  marched  the  Scots 
round  to  the  slopes  above  Corstorphine,  which  now  look  down  on 
green  meadows,  then  marshy  and  impassable  with  water.  Cromwell 
could  not  dislodge  his  wily  opponent  ;  the  way  to  Queensferry  and 
to  the  roadstead  in  the  Forth  was  effectually  barred  ;  and  there  was 
no  alternative  to  a  retreat,  more  especially  since  disease  was  spreading 
in  the  English  ranks.  Cromwell  made  for  Dunbar  and  arrived  there 
on  1st  September,  closely  chased  by  Leslie,  who  got  between  him  and 
the  Borders. 

The   Scottish  army  was   miserably  rent  by  factious  parties,  and  Dissensions 
military  discipline  had  suffered  severely  in  consequence  of  the  loss  covenanters. 
of  unity  caused  by  the  constant  purging  process  and  the  growth  of 


'  Balfour,  iv.  87  ;  Douglas,  Croinwcirs  Scotch  Campaigns,  37-52. 

'  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  xi.,  App.  vi.  132,  No.  393  {Hamilton  MSS.) ;  Row,  Blair,  235. 


8  THE  COVENANTERS 

divisive  views  of  the  situation.  Before  John  Livingstone  took  leave 
of  his  Sovereign  he  adjured  him  to  divert  the  shock  of  the  EngHsh 
invasion  by  making  a  personal  declaration  that,  while  maintaining 
his  title  to  the  English  Crown,  he  would  not  prosecute  it  with  the 
sword  until  political  confusions  had  vanished.  Not  relishing  the 
proposal,  Charles  replied  to  his  wise  adviser,  'he  hoped  I  would 
not  wish  him  to  sell  his  father's  blood.'  ^  This  snub  convinced  the 
preacher  that  he  was  not  'called  to  meddle  in  any  publick  state 
matters.'  The  Covenanters  were  not  unanimous  in  their  idea  of 
this  demand.  Cromwell  knew  this,  and  vainly  hoped  to  win  over 
the  extremists  to  his  side.  He  had  formerly  insisted  on  the  passing 
of  an  Act  of  Classes,  and  subsequently  tried  to  convince  the  Presby- 
terians that  to  trust  another  Malignant  ruler  was  a  fatal  error.  The 
leaders  in  the  Church  and  Estates,  especially  in  the  former,  were  as 
determined  to  exact  from  Charles  some  safeguarding  Declaration 
as  he  was  obstinate  in  giving  any  satisfaction  as  to  his  intentions. 
Robert  Douglas,  like  Livingstone,  in  a  private  interview  with 
Charles,  failed  to  convince  him  of  the  necessity  for  declaring  his 
views.  They  were  also  resolved  not  to  brook  the  well-timed  taunt 
of  Cromwell  as  to  their  inconsistency  in  professing  the  Covenants 
at  the  same  time  that  they  drew  the  sword  in  the  Malignant  cause. 
The  West  This  is  not  to  be  wondered  at.     The  demands  of  the  Covenanters, 

tion,  iTth"  ^^^°  bitterly  stigmatised  the  parents  of  King  Charles  as  murderers 
August  1650.  and  idolaters,  were  as  humiliating  and  insulting  as  they  could  possibly 
be.  Nevertheless  Charles  stooped  to  agree  to  them,  merely  stipu- 
lating that  the  harsh  terms  of  the  Declaration  should  be  altered. 
The  Protesters  refused  to  do  this  after  obtaining  the  King's  signature.' 
He  was  further  subdued  by  a  resolution  of  the  Church  and  of  the 
Estates,  subscribed  at  the  West  Kirk,  Edinburgh,  on  the  13th  August, 
for  the  purpose  of  satisfying  the  scruples  of  some  officers,  wherein  it 
was  declared  that  the  Kirk  and  Kingdom  would  only  fight  for  the 
settled  Cause  of  the  Covenant ;  disclaimed  the  sins  of  the  Royal 
House;  and  would  not  own  the  King  or  his  interest,  unless  he 
'  Select  Biog.,  i.  185.  -  Wodrow,  i.  47. 


SCOTLAND'S  THREE  RULERS  9 

subordinated  himself  to  God,  prosecuted  their  holy  aims  in  a  holy 
manner,  and  repudiated  the  enemies  of  the  Covenant.' 

Robert  Douglas,  who  had  assented  to  this  Act  providing  a 
private  solace  to  the  sensitive  commanders  of  the  Covenanters,  was 
chagrined  to  learn  that  General  Leslie  had  immediately  forwarded 
the  Resolution  to  Cromwell,  with  the  request  that  he  should  read  it 
to  his  officers.-  This  was  duly  done.  Cromwell  sent  back  a  masterly, 
scathing  reply,  wherein  he  disclaimed  all  intention  to  interfere  with  the  Cromwell's 
religion  of  the  Scots,  and  accused  the  Scots  of  inconsistency  in  con-  '^'^'='*"""- 
demning  Malignancy,  while  they  used  the  Covenant  in  order  to  impose 
a  Malignant  King  upon  England,  who  was  actually  then  employing 
a  Popish  army  to  fight  for  him ;  nor  could  he  see  how  any  '  Godly 
Interest'  could  centre  in  such  a  man  as  Charles  was,  or  make  the 
English  army  enemies  of  the  Presbyterians.  Those  Covenanters 
who  agreed  with  Cromwell  were  in  a  minority  and  unable  to  coalesce 
with  him.  Doubtless  their  views  were  right,  and  they  soon  saw  the 
error  of  trusting  a  ruler  who  never  meant  to  keep  his  vows.^ 

Cromwell  was  answered.  Charles  was  terrified.  He  was  afraid 
of  being  deserted  by  the  army.  He  was  practically  a  prisoner  under 
the  surveillance  of  Lord  Lome,  captain  of  the  Foot  Guards,  nor  could 
he  outwit,  with  lies  and  all,  the  astute  Argyll — 

'  That  Hylander  whose  conscience  and  whose  eyes 
Play  handy-dandy  with  deceit  and  lyes.'* 

As  an  easy  way  out  of  his  dilemma  and  present  troubles  Charles  Declaration  at 
signed  the  Declaration  at  Dunfermline  on  i6th  August.  Its  seven  °""^"'"''"^' 
heads  bore  that  Charles  humbled  himself  for  his  father's  opposition 
to  the  '  Worke  of  God '  and  to  the  Covenants,  and  for  the  idolatry, 
especially  of  his  mother,  in  the  royal  household  ;  acknowledged  that 
he  had  no  crooked  design  in  signing  the  Covenant  and  would  have 
no  friends  except  Covenanters  ;    annulled  the   Irish   Treaty  ;    would 

>  Balfour,  iv.  95.  2  Wodrow,  i.  48. 

^  Leslie's  letter  is  printed  in  Cromwell,  Letters  (cxxxvi.),  ii.  171.  Cromwell's  reply  is 
Letter  cxxxvii.  For  Cromwell's  letter  written  at  Pentland  Hills,  cf.  Clar.  State  Pap.  (June- 
Sept.,  1650),  171  (Bodleian  Library). 

*  Scot.  Hist.  Misc.,  ii.  287  ;  Hist.  Ma?t.  Com.  Rep.,  xi.,  App.  vi.  132. 

VOL.  n.  B 


lo  THE  COVENANTERS 

encourage  trading  by  sea ;  would  promote  the  Covenant  in  England 
and  Ireland  ;  would  pass  an  act  of  oblivion  for  all  except  obstructors 
of  the  Reformation,  traitors,  and  regicides ;  and  would  advise  the 
well-affected  English  to  help  the  Covenanters  in  preference  to  the 
Sectaries.  Patrick  Gillespie,  minister  in  Glasgow,  who  placed  the 
Deception  by    pen  in  the  hand  of  Charles  to  subscribe  the  document,    said  to  him 

Charles. 

'  that  if  he  was  not  satisfied  in  his  soul  and  conscience,  beyond  all 
hesitation,  of  the  righteousness  of  the  subscription,  he  was  so  far  from 
over-driving  him  to  ruin  upon  that,  that  as  he  obtested  him,  yea  he 
charged  him,  in  his  Master's  name  and  in  the  name  of  those  who  sent 
him,  not  to  subscribe  this  declaration,  no,  not  for  the  three  kingdoms.' 
'  Mr.  Gillespie,'  replied  the  King,  '  Mr.  Gillespie,  I  am  satisfied  with 
the  Declaration,  and  therefore  will  subscribe  it.'*  The  unprincipled 
deceiver  was  but  juggling  with  sacred  things.  With  'good  and  true 
natural  inclinations  to  the  Catholic  faith,'  Charles  had  already  solicited 
Papal  help,  and  at  this  very  juncture,  through  the  Dean  of  Tuam,  he 
assured  Ormond  that  he  adhered  to  the  Irish  Peace:  'However  I 
am  forced  by  the  necessity  of  my  affairs  to  appear  otherwise,  yet  that 
I  am  a  true  child  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  still  remain  firm  unto 
my  first  principles.  Mr.  King,  I  am  a  true  Cavalier.'^  He  wrote 
to  Nicholas  from  Perth  on  3rd  September  :  '  Nothing  could  have  con- 
firmed me  more  to  the  Church  of  England  than  being  here  seeing 
their  hypocrisy.'  How  this  discreditable  artifice  of  a  perfidious  time- 
server  could  salve  the  consciences  of  the  military  champions  of  the 
Covenant  it  is  hard  to  understand.  Argyll,  however,  well  aware  of 
the  hollowness  of  the  King's  professions,  offered  to  him  the  con- 
soling suggestion  that  his  agreement  was  only  a  temporary  expedient 
'to  please  these  madmen.'^  Reaching  the  coast  at  Dunbar, 
Cromwell  saw  his  '  poor,  shattered,  hungry,  discouraged  army '  of 
1 1,000  men  in  a  trap.  Leslie,  almost  simultaneously  on  Sabbath,  ist 
September,  appeared  with  23,000  men  on  the  Dun,  an  eminence  600 
feet  high,  one  mile  south  from  Dunbar,  whose  very  name  describes  a 

'  A.  Shields,  A  Hind  Let  Loose,  T},.         2  Gardiner,  Hist,  of  Commonwealth,  i.  268,  279. 
'  Cal.  State  Pap.  {Dam.),  ii.  325,  350. 


SCOTLAND'S  THREE  RULERS  ii 

military  'coign  of  vantage.'  On  the  west  it  overlooks  the  course  of 
the  Broxburn,  which  had  cut  a  deep  and  natural  fosse  40  feet  in 
depth  and  breadth,  protecting  the  left  declivity  of  the  position.  The 
front  of  the  Dun  is  a  steep,  grassy  slope  with  a  gradient  of  500  feet 
in  half  a  mile  facing  the  sea. 

The  peninsula  of  Dunbar,  on  which  the  English  had  pitched  their  Cromweii  in 
tents,  extends  'about  a  mile  from  sea  to  sea' — from  Belhaven  Bay  to  ^^'n,^^^ 
Broxmouth  House. ^  Eight  miles  further  east  Leslie  had  posted  a 
force  sufficient  to  guard  a  deep  ravine  called  Peaths  Dean,  at 
Cockburnspath,  and  thus  doubly  barred  the  Berwick  Road  into 
England.  In  the  enemy's  land  Cromwell's  only  friend  was  the  sea. 
'  Our  condition  was  made  very  sad,'  he  wrote  to  Ireton,  'the  Enemy 
greatly  insulted  and  menaced  us.'  He  might  fortify  the  town  and 
wait  till  relief  came,  or  ship  his  foot  and  cut  through  with  his  sabres. 
But  he  had  not  transports  enough  to  carry  all  his  infantry.  Leslie 
was  sure  he  would  attempt  a  massed  cavalry  charge.  Indeed,  'the 
Scots  boasted  that  they  had  Cromwell  in  a  worse  pound  than  the 
King  had  had  Essex  in  Cornwall,"'^  and  that  his  capture  was  inevit- 
able.^ Cromwell  realised  his  peril,  and,  to  inspire  courage,  openly 
lightlied  it.  On  Monday  he  wrote  anxiously,  marking  on  the  letter 
'  Haste,  Haste,'  to  Haselrig  from  the  battlefield :  '  We  are  upon  an 
Engagement  very  difficult.  The  Enemy  hath  blocked  up  our  way 
at  the  Pass  of  Copperspath,  through  which  we  cannot  get  without 
almost  a  miracle.  He  lieth  so  upon  the  Hills  that  we  know  not  how 
to  come  that  way  without  great  difficulty ;  and  our  lying  here  daily 
consumeth  our  men,  who  fall  sick  beyond  imagination.'*  One  can  also 
gather  from  this  letter  that  Cromwell  intended  to  sit  tight  until 
Haselrig  approached  with  reinforcements  from  Newcastle,  which 
Cromwell  had  demanded  and  the  Government  had  ordered.'^  In 
his  account  sent  to  the  English  Parliament  Cromwell  acknowledged 
that  the  Lord  had  '  reduced  our  Army  into  such  straits  that  room 
was  only  left  for  Believing.'" 

'  Cromwell,  Letter  cxl.  2  pjrth,  Cromwell.,  281. 

'  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  Vl.  ii.  808.  *  Letter  cxxxix. 

'  Cal.  State  Pap.,  ii.  328.  «  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vi.  ii.  808. 


12 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Leslie's 
position  at 
Dunbar,  2nd 
September. 


As  the  Scots  faced  the  foe  they  proceeded  with  the  ruinous  purga- 
tion.^ Their  strength  was  further  undermined  by  Royalist  traitors,  who 
kept  Cromwell  informed  of  Leslie's  designs."  Leslie  had  the  advantage 
of  what  counsel  the  veteran  Leven,  who  ran  from  Marston  Moor,  could 
give  him  before  he  fled  again  ;  and  also  the  disadvantage  of  having 
to  obey  that  advisory  Council  of  War  which  ruined  Baillie  at  Kilsyth. 
The  fatal  blunder  at  Kilsyth  of  moving  to  a  less  secure  position  in 
front  of  the  foe  was  perpetrated  again.  For  this  tactical  mistake 
the  clergy  have  been  wrongly  blamed.  The  Protesters  with  reason 
repudiated  the  libel. ^  Cromwell  him.self  testified  that  the  clergy 
elected  to  fight,  but  the  chief  officers  desired  that  he  should  escape, 
'  though  it  were  by  a  golden  bridge.'  ■* 

On  Monday,  'toward  the  evening,'  when  Cromwell  was  praying 
for  deliverance  out  of  his  dilemma,  the  Scottish  Horse  were  seen  to 
descend  from  the  Dun  ;  the  foot  and  guns  followed,  to.  extend  east 
and  to  take  up  new  positions,  behind  Little  Pinkerton  and  nearer  to 
the  highway  to  Berwick.  Cromwell  marked  this  move  to  bar  his 
road  south.  The  fields  in  which  the  cavalry  were  picketed  were 
yellow  with  the  ripened  corn.  Leslie's  object  was  to  gain  a  better 
stand  for  threatening  the  unfinished  embarkation,  and  for  repelling 
the  dash  of  the  Ironsides.  Besides,  for  days  Leslie  had  been  acting 
with  the  arrogance  of  a  swaggerer,  rather  than  the  caution  of  a 
strategist.^  If  Leslie's  scouts  had  not  been  inefficient  and  untrust- 
worthy, he  would  not  thus  have  acted  on  the  mistaken  belief  that 
Cromwell  had  crippled  his  force  by  shipping  those  guns  which 
next  morning  thundered  out  death  over  the  Broxburn  into  his  left 


'  That  some  incorrigible  scamps  were  still  left  in  the  army  is  proved  by  the  report  of 
Haselrig  on  the  Scots  prisoners  captured  at  Dunbar,  whom  he  declared  to  be  '  unruly, 
sluttish,  and  nasty';  'they  acted  rather  like  beasts  than  men';  and  some  even  murdered 
others  for  their  money  or  clothes':  Haselrig,  Letter,  31st  October  1650,  quoted  by  Taylor, 
Pictorial  Hist,  of  Scot.,  ii.  978.  One  of  Cromwell's  spies  was  Mein,  son  to  the  staunch 
Anti-liturgists,  John  Mein  and  Barbara  Hamilton — the  'Jenny  Geddes'  of  tradition.  The 
upright  old  Covenanter  got  his  son  apprehended.  He  was  condemned  to  the  gallows,  but 
reprieved  by  Charles  :  Balfour,  iv.  297,  299.  'Old  Jlione  Meane'  and  his  wife  died  in  1654  : 
Lamont,  Chron.,  <yj.  "  Balfour,  iv.  97. 

'  M'Crie,  Sketches,  ii.  43  note.  *  Letter  cxlii. 

'  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vi.  ii.  SoS  ;  Cromwell,  Letter  cxlii. 


SCOTLAND'S  THREE  RULERS  13 

wing.  Tradition  maintains  that  when  Cromwell  saw  the  unexpected 
turn  of  good  fortune  in  that  fatal  descent,  he  exclaimed  :  '  The  Lord 
hath  delivered  them  into  our  hands.'  That  strategist  instantly 
perceived  that  his  opponent,  Leslie,  could  no  longer  deploy  his  left 
wing  for  the  ravine,  nor  yet  could  he  re-form  his  right  and  centre  on 
the  hillside,  should  they  be  successfully  assailed  and  thrown  into 
disorder.  Even  with  these  unexpected  advantages  Cromwell  had  no 
justification  for  his  assurance. 

Had  Leslie,  in  command  of  double  the  force  of  his  antagonist,  Carelessness 
kept  on  guard,  and  his  officers  been  worthy  of  the  name,  the  surprise  °^^j^* 
by  Cromwell  would  have  been  ineffective.  Cromwell's  formations 
along  the  stream  indicated  a  mere  defence.  During  the  evening  he 
moved  his  divisions  closer  to  the  Broxburn,  and  was  ready  for 
crossing  at  daybreak.  General  Lambert,  at  the  head  of  six  regiments 
of  horse,  followed  by  three  and  a  half  regiments  of  foot,  was  ready  to 
attack.  The  night  was  blustering,  rainy,  and  cloudy.  The  Scots, 
shelterless,  except  those  fortunate  ones  cowering  behind  the  stocks 
of  corn,  spent  a  miserable  night.  Although  they  were  ordered  to 
stand  to  arms,  sleep  overpowered  them.  The  cavalry  off-saddled. 
Major-General  Holborn  in  the  dead  of  night  relaxed  the  discipline, 
and  permitted  nearly  all  the  musketeers  to  let  their  matches  expire. 
Thus  practically  disarmed,  the  men  lay  down  to  rest.  Some  of  the 
infantry  officers  slunk  away  to  comfort  and  safety.^ 

Meantime    the   waning    moon    gave    Cromwell    light    enough    to  The  Battle 
carry  out  his  crafty  plan  under  the  leadership  of  Generals  Lambert,  ,,j  September 
Fleetwood,  and  Monck.      Before  dawn  the  half-awakened  Scots  were  '^so- 
attacked  ere  they  well  could  form  up  for  action.     Soon  the  air  was 
rent  with  trumpet  calls,  musket  shots,  cannonading,  noise  of  clanging 
steel,  and  cries  of'  The  Lord  of  Hosts,'  answered  by  '  The  Covenant,' 
from  the  hillside.      Pride's  brigade  of  three  regiments,  supported  by 
Cromwell's  regiment  of  horse,  during  the  darkness  crossed  the  stream 
below  Broxmouth  House,  and  made  a  wide  detour  to  reach  the  Scots 
cavalry  on  the  right  wing.     The  main  body  of  the  English,  headed 

■  Walker,  Hist.  Disc,  i8l. 


Drove.' 


14  THE  COVENANTERS 

by  Lambert's  horse,  crossed  below  Brant's  Mill,  and  were  supported 
by  the  great  guns  planted  above  it.  A  force  of  Scots,  early  astir  to 
cross  the  ford  on  the  Berwick  road,  met  the  English  and  for  an 
hour  gallantly  contested  the  passage,  at  length  being  forced  back.^ 
Lambert  headed  for  the  Scottish  cavalry,  but  his  first  onset  was 
repulsed.  The  foot  under  Monck  attacked  the  Scottish  centre  and 
were  driven  back.  The  check  was  temporary.  Pride's  brigade 
advanced  to  the  attack,  Monck's  division  rallied,  and  although  one 
Scottish  foot  regiment,  under  Campbell  of  Lawers,  gallantly  withstood 
a  flank  attack  from  Lambert's  infantry,  until  cavalry  broke  through 
their  ranks,  the  Scottish  centre  gave  way. 
'  Dunbar  The  left  wing  of  the  Scots,  flanked  by  a  small  body  of  horse,  was 

in  too  confined  a  position  to  act  effectively,  and  was  held  in  check  by 
the  English  artillery.  The  right  wing  of  the  Scots  was  thus  driven 
diagonally  towards  the  left,  the  troopers,  with  all  their  colours  flying, 
riding  pell-mell  over  their  comrades.  At  this  moment  the  red  sun 
rose  out  of  the  German  Ocean.  Cromwell  was  heard  to  exclaim  : 
'  Now  let  God  arise,  and  His  enemies  shall  be  scattered  ' ;  then  a  little 
afterwards  :  '  I  profess  they  run.'  He  recorded  how  the  Scots  were 
'made  as  by  the  Lord  of  Hosts  as  stubble  to  their  swords.'^  It 
was  a  cowardly  stampede.  As  many  fugitives  escaped  unhurt  as 
Cromwell  had  men  to  chase  them.  The  Lord  General  sounded  the 
rally,  halted  the  victors,  sang  the  hundred  and  seventeenth  psalm, 
and  unleashed  the  rested  chargers  again  upon  the  bloody  pursuit.  It 
was  the  very  shortest  canticle  which  the  avenger  chose  for  praise, 
not  wishing  to  defraud  the  thirsty  sabres  of  their  due.  The  singing 
veteran  himself  rode  to  the  slaughter.  Three  thousand  men  fell  and 
ten  thousand  men  were  taken,  along  with  nearly  two  hundred  standards 
and  thirty  guns.^  The  most  notable  among  the  mortally  wounded 
was  Winram,  Lord  Libbertoun,  negotiator  at  Breda  and  Dunfermline. 
A  few  colonels  died  at  their  posts.  The  craven  generals.  Council  of 
War,  the  entire  cavalry,  and  the  officers  of  the  infantry  fled  and  left 

'  Douglas,  Cromtvell's  Campaigns,  109  note.  '  Letter  cxl. 

^  Alex.  Jaffray,  Diary,  163.    Jaffray,  Libbertoun,  Gillespie,  Waugh  were  taken  prisoners. 


SCOTLAND'S  THREE  RULERS  15 

the  rank  and  file  to  their  fate.  Cromwell  asserted  that  only  twenty 
men  and  officers  on  his  side  were  placed  hors  de  combat.  This 
indicates  the  absence  of  hand-to-hand  combats,  and  of  any  serious 
defence  by  the  Scots.  An  eye-witness  declared  that  after  the  first 
onset  '  wee  lost  none,  they  giving  themselv's  cheap  to  the  execution.'' 
The  craven  Leslie  laid  the  blame  of  the  disaster  on  the  chicken- 
hearted  officers.  He  wrote  to  Argyll,  5th  September :  '  I  tak  God 
to  witness  wee  might  have  as  easily  beaten  them  as  wee  did  James 
Graham  at  Philipshauch,  if  the  officers  had  stayed  by  theire  troops 
and  regiments.'^ 

Cromwell  released  over  five  thousand  wounded  men,  and  marched  duel  fate  of 
nearly  four  thousand  prisoners  into  England.  These  famished  men,  '=°'^P"^""*- 
by  hundreds,  died  of  dysentery,  contracted  through  the  hardships  of 
the  campaign,  and  the  eating  of  raw  vegetables  in  a  garden  at 
Morpeth,  where  the  prisoners  were  confined.  In  November  only 
fourteen  hundred  of  them  survived.  Cromwell  gave  the  Countess  of 
Winton  a  thousand  'in  a  gallantry.'^  The  English  Council  of  State 
ordered  that  the  sound  prisoners  should  be  deported  to  the  planta- 
tions of  Virginia  and  New  England,  and  to  French  military  service, 
and  some  kept  for  English  salt-works.^  Few  escaped  from  the 
scourge  of  disease  to  enter  upon  their  servitude.  Cromwell  triumph- 
antly wrote  to  Lenthall,  the  Speaker  :  '  It  would  do  you  good  to  see 
and  hear  our  poor  foot  to  go  up  and  down  making  their  boast  of  God 
for  one  of  the  most  signal  mercies  God  hath  done  for  England  and 
His  people.'"  Clarendon,  on  the  other  hand,  noted  the  absence  of 
lamentation  in  Royalist  society  :  '  So  the  King  was  glad  of  it,  as  the 
greatest  happiness  that  could  befall  him,  in  the  loss  of  so  strong  a  body 
of  his  enemies.'  Charles  was  even  credited  with  falling  on  his  knees 
and  thanking  God  for  the  victory.  Rutherford  and  the  Godly  Party 
also  indulged  in  a  pious  joy  because  God  had  testified  to  His  wrath. 

Cromwell  gave  God  the  glory  for  having  appeared  at  Dunbar  '  to 
the  refreshment  of  His  saints.'     He  speedily  followed  up  his  advan- 

'  'A  Brief  Relation,'  Terry,  Leslie,  478.        -  Ancram  and  Lothian  Correspondence,  ii.  29S. 
»  Walker,  Hist.  Disc:,  181.  ■"  Ca/.  State  Pap.,  ii.  334,  346.  '  Letter  cxl. 


i6  THE  COVENANTERS 

tage  and  captured  Edinburgh  and  Leith,  the  Castle  of  Edinburgh, 
Cromwell  howevcr,  holding  out.  Arriving  at  Edinburgh  on  Saturday,  7th 
bur"h  ''"  September,  Cromwell  found  that,  while  the  military  had  converted 
7th  September.  St.  Giles'  Church  into  a  store  for  munitions  of  war,  the  city  ministers 
had  sought  safety  in  the  Castle  and  deserted  their  pulpits.  He 
invited  them  to  return  to  their  duty.  They  not  only  refused,  but  also 
sent  to  him  an  insolent  reply,  taunting  him  and  the  Sectaries  with 
persecuting  the  English  clergy.  Even  John  Livingstone  refused  to 
meet  Cromwell.^  Cromwell  took  the  trouble  personally  to  answer 
their  unfounded  accusations."  He  severely  reprimanded  them  for  not 
'yielding  to  the  mind  of  God  in  the  great  day  of  His  power  and 
visitation,'  and  pointed  out  their  mistake  in  supposing  that  their 
present  policy  would  work  out  the  blessed  Reformation.  Never  had 
the  preachers  received  so  well  merited  a  castigation.  Their  craven 
conduct  makes  a  poor  contrast  beside  that  of  Zachary  Boyd,  who 
stayed  to  confront  Cromwell  in  the  Cathedral  of  Glasgow,  a  month 
later.  That  bold  rhymer  improved  the  occasion  in  flouting  the 
Sectaries  to  their  faces.  The  irate  Ironsides  would  have  pistolled 
him  on  the  spot  had  Cromwell  not  reserved  the  audacious  railer  for  a 
worse  revenge — a  compulsory  hearing  of  Old  Noll's  own  interminable 
prayers. 

If  Cromwell  could  read  the  clerical  mind  he  could  also  anticipate 
the  next  royal  move.  From  the  battlefield  he  wrote  in  a  prophetic 
mood  to  Haselrig  :  '  Surely  it's  probable  the  Kirk  has  done  their  do. 
I  believe  their  King  will  set  up  upon  his  own  score  now  ;  wherein 
he  will  find  many  friends.'^  Cromwell  lost  no  time  in  seeking  an 
encounter  with  Leslie,  who  had  raked  together  his  runaways  at 
Stirling  and  occupied  a  position  too  strong  for  Cromwell  to  take. 
Leslie's  Leslie  had  more  irritating  opponents  in  his  own  camp.      Colonels 

troubles.  Strachan  and  Gilbert  Ker,  the  victors  of  Carbisdale  and  other  fights 

for  the  Covenant,  the  Gideons  of  the  extreme  party,  the  irreconcilable 
malcontents  at  the  West  Kirk  meeting,  with  other  anti-Malignants, 
publicly  and  rightly  accused  Leslie  of  losing  the  battle  of  Dunbar,  and 

'  Select  Biog.,\.  i86.  -  Letters  cxivii.,  cxlviii.  '  Letter  cxli. 


SCOTLAND'S  THREE  RULERS  17 

refused  to  serve  under  him,  or  Leven.  It  is  painful  to  think  that 
after  Worcester  fight  Charles  should  have  made  a  similar  charge  of 
cowardice  and  implied  treachery  against  Leslie.'  Leslie  resigned  his 
commission  and,  following  the  example  of  Baillie,  resumed  it  on  the 
entreaty  of  the  Estates. 

The  Royalist  party,  including  the  King,  resolved  if  possible  to  The  PubUc 
effect  a  conjunction  of  the  diverse  parties  in  the  State  and  Church  for 
the  good  of  religion  and  the  safety  of  the  kingdom,  and  this  proposal 
was  discussed  by  the  leaders  of  both  Estates  assembled  in  Stirling. 
Opinions  differed  as  to  the  wisdom  of  acquiescing  in  this  proposal, 
which  afterwards  was  known  as  The  Public  Resolutions,  and  soon 
there  were  two  opposing  parties,  laymen  and  clerics  associated,  for 
and  against  the  proposal. 

Harmony  in  the  Scottish  camp  was  now  impossible.  The 
opponents  of  the  new  policy  of  enlisting  all  and  sundry  into  the 
Royalist  ranks — Ker,  Strachan,  Chiesley,  and  others — were  permitted 
to  go  into  south-west  Scotland  and  there  to  raise  an  independent 
command  of  untainted  brethren  in  the  valleys  of  Clyde,  Ayr,  and  Nith. 
Sir  Edward  Walker  is  the  authority  for  the  story  that  Strachan 
wrote  to  Cromwell  a  letter,  which  was  intercepted,  assuring  Cromwell 
that  if  he  would  quit  Scotland,  Strachan  '  would  so  use  the  matter  as 
that  he  should  not  fear  any  prejudice  from  this  nation.' '" 

This  Godly  Party  assured  themselves  that  God  would  strengthen 
them  to  cope  with  the  opponents  of  the  Covenant  without  the  aid  of 
foreign  arms. 

While  these  dissensions  tore  the  army,  the  Commission  of  the  James  Guthrie 
General  Assembly  also  met  in  Stirling.  The  influence  of  James  pjo^gs^ers 
Guthrie,  minister  there,  Patrick  Gillespie,  Johnston  of  Wariston, 
Samuel  Rutherford,  and  other  opponents  of  Malignancy  was  para- 
mount. The  fruit  of  their  labours  was  A  Shorte  Declaratio7ie  and 
Varninge  to  all  the  congregations,  which  was  issued  on  1 2th 
September.*      This  document   urged  all   parties   to   search   for   the 

'  Cal.  State  Pap.,  iii.  xxi.  ;  iv.  2.  -  Hist.  Disc,  189. 

'  Balfour,  iv.  98  ;  Row,  Blair,  246  note. 

VOL.  II.  C 


i8  THE  COVENANTERS 

iniquities  which  had  provoked  God  to  visit  Scotland  with  His  wrath, 
and  summoned  the  King  to  mourn  for  the  provocations  of  his  guilty 
father  and  himself,  as  well  as  to  consider  if  his  hypocritical  acceptance 
of  the  Covenant,  in  order  to  gain  an  earthly  crown,  was  not  another 
sin  depriving  him  of  a  heavenly  crown.  The  '  honest  party '  had  not 
done.  This  summons  prefaced  another  document,  entitled  '  Causes 
of  a  soleme  public  humiliatione  vpone  the  defait  of  the  Armey,  to  be 
keepit  throughout  all  the  Congregations  of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,' 
which,  under  thirteen  heads,  called  on  the  kingdom  to  humble  itself 
because  of  national  sin,  the  provocation  of  the  King's  House,  the 
home-coming  of  Malignants  and  the  neglecting  to  expatriate  them,  the 
crooked  ways  of  some  negotiators  sent  to  Breda,  ingratitude  to  God, 
and  the  selfish  policy  of  officials  and  officers  in  places  of  power  and 
trust. ^  These  edicts,  however,  were  not  well  received  in  many  places. 
Some  ministers  in  Fife  refused  to  publish  the  documents,  and  ■even 
went  the  length  of  demanding  the  restoration  to  public  employment 
of  such  of  their  own  parishioners  as  had  satisfied  the  Church  for  the 
sin  of  the  Engagement. 

Sir  John  Chiesley  of  Kerswell,  speaking  of  these  would-be 
penitents,  as  he  laid  his  hand  significantly  on  his  sword,  said,  '  I 
would  rather  join  with  Cromwell  than  with  them.'"  This  was  the 
voice  of  the  '  honest  party,'  who  preferred  an  alliance  with  the 
Sectaries  to  government  by  indifferent  Discovenanters,  whom  Argyll, 
in  his  weak-kneed  policy  of  moderation,  was  reintroducing  into  official 
life,  at  least  such  as  were  personally  friendly  to  himself. 
The  King  During  all  this  time  Charles  was  treated  with  a  courteous  vigilance 

usually  reserved  for  suspects,  and  for  useful  recreation  he  was  expected 
to  absorb,  with  the  avidity  of  a  proselyte,  the  Puritanical  dogmatics  he 
was  treated  to.  In  this  enforced  novitiate  the  carnal  youth  tried  to  look 
as  grave  as  possible.     Burnet  testifies  that  Charles  mortified  his  flesh, 

'  Balfour,  A?i!ials,  iv.  102.  This  document  was  the  groundwork  of  Guthrie's  famous 
Catcses  of  God's  IVrath,  etc.,  published  in  1653,  the  writing  of  which  formed  an  item  in  his 
indictment.  During  these  interminable  dissensions  David  Calderwood,  the  historian  of  the 
Church,  and  a  sufferer  for  Presbyterianism,  died  at  Jedburgh  in  the  seventy-fifth  year  of  his 
age,  29lh  October  1650.  '^  Cheisley  or  Chiesly  :  Walker,  187. 


under  su 
veillance 


SCOTLAND'S  THREE  RULERS  19 

standing  to  hear  prolix  prayers  and  sitting  to  digest  tedious  sermons, 
no  less  than  six  on  one  occasion.  Few  princes  would  brook  this  pain 
for  any  crown.  His  guardians  made  him  observe  Sabbath  within 
doors  and  week-days  free  from  dancing  and  card-playing.  They  gave 
him  no  opportunity  to  write  private  letters.  The  sinless  game  of  golf 
he  might  play  with  sentinels  in  sight.  No  doubt  these  national  school- 
masters had  good  reason  for  stringency  with  one  whose  passions  drove 
him  into  vice  and  crime.'  There  was  another  peril.  He  had  won  the 
hearts  of  the  unthinking  masses,  who  were  scarce  permitted  to  see 
the  youth,  and  therefore  invested  him  with  many  imaginary  virtues. 
Marvel's  description  of  him  in  after-years  indicates  his  appearance  : — 

'  Of  a  tall  stature  and  a  sable  hue, 
Much  like  the  son  of  Kish  the  lofty  Jew, 
Ten  years  of  need  he  suffered  in  exile. 
And  kept  his  father's  asses  all  the  while.' 

These  months  of  penance  made  an  ineffaceable  impression  on  the 
young  King's  mind  and  confirmed  him  in  his  hatred  of  Presbyterianism. 
When,  after  the  battle  of  Worcester,  Charles  appeared  in  France, 
Orleans  told  him  that  it  was  reported  that  he  had  gone  back  to 
Scotland.     Charles  replied,  '  I  had  rather  have  been  hanged.' ' 

The  Commission  of  the  Assembly  urged  the  Committee  of  Estates 
to  finish  their  half-done  work  of  purging  the  King's  House.  The 
Lyon- King  was  commanded  to  discharge  the  offending  courtiers  who 
had  been  detected  plotting  for  a  Royalist  rising.  In  vain  had  Charles 
pleaded  for  the  retention  of  some  of  his  favourites,  but  even  the 
servile  petition  of  Hamilton  was  rejected.^  The  King,  smarting 
under  these  insults,  and  misled  into  the  apprehension  that  the  '  honest 
party ' — the  western  army — under  Strachan  intended  to  seize  and 
hand  him  over  to  Cromwell  to  be  made  an  unwilling  martyr,  had 
completed  a  plan  for  escaping  their  toils.  He  arranged  a  secret 
meeting  with  his  Royalist  supporters  in  Fife.  He  cherished  the  fond 
dream  that  the  raising  of  the  royal  banner  and  the  mustering  of  the 

'  Airy,  Charles  II.,  95.  ^  Cal.  State  Pap.,  iv.  2. 

^  Balfour,  iv.  110  ;  Cal.  Stale  Pap.,  ii.  331. 


20  THE  COVENANTERS 

veterans  of  Montrose  would  create  defection  in  the  army  of  Leslie. 
However,  too  many  were  in  the  secret,  which  the  Government  learned 
from  one  of  the  plotters,  probably  Buckingham.  The  meeting  was 
'The  Start,'  countermanded.  Charles,  nevertheless,  on  the  afternoon  of  Friday, 
1650/"'"  4th  October,  accompanied  by  a  few  attendants,  left  Perth,  as  if  on 
hunting  bent  in  the  south,  crossed  the  Tay  to  Inchyra,  and  rode 
rapidly  by  Dudhope,  Auchterhouse,  and  Cortachy  to  Clova,  a  distance 
of  forty-two  miles.  He  entered  a  wretched  hovel  and  threw  himself 
down  to  sleep  on  an  old  bolster  laid  on  sedges  and  rushes.^  A 
company  of  Highlanders — the  army  of  his  dreams — kept  guard  over 
the  weary  and  terrified  monarch,  until  Colonel  Montgomery  and  his 
horse  regiment  surrounded  the  captive.  They  timed  his  return  into 
Perth  after  the  hour  of  public  worship  and  treated  him  to  a  special 
private  sermon,^  so  that  in  his  sin  he  might  not  defraud  his  soul  of  the 
comforts  of  a  Covenanter's  sabbath. 

The  Committee  of  Estates,  realising  the  peril  they  had  been  saved 
from,  met  on  loth  October,  and  for  the  first  time  gave  the  King  a  say 
in  their  councils.  Next  day  he  apologised  for  his  credulity  and  his 
escapade,  'as  he  was  a  Christian  man.'  This  ignominious  incident  is 
remembered  under  the  name  of  'The  Start.' 
The  Forfar  The  Suppression  of  the  armed  Royalists  in  Angus  and  Athole  was 

r.u 'r\  ,  1       not  so  easily  effected.      Leslie  mustered  a  force  to  crush  them.     With 

20th  October  1 

1650.  no  little  diplomacy  the  leaders  of  the  rising  forwarded  to  Leslie  from 

Forfar  a  copy  of  their  Bond,  in  which  they  pleaded  for  national  unity, 
and  summoned  all  patriots  to  combine  against  the  invaders.  The 
terms  of  the  Bond  are  as  follows  : — 

'The  Northerne  band  and  Othc  of  Engagement,  sent  by  Midcltone  to 
L.-Generall  Dauid  Lesley,  26  of  October,  1650. 

'  We  wndersubscriuers,  being  tuoched  with  a  deepe  sence  of  the  sade  condition 
this  our  naliue  kingdome  of  Scotland  is  in,  by  a  prewailling  armey  of  sectaries, 
quho  hauing  murthered  our  lait  king,  and  ouerturned  religione  and  gouuerniinent 
in  our  nighboure  kingdomcs  of  luigland  and  Ireland,  hath  invaded  this  kingdome, 
and  are  in  a  way  ...  to  reduce  the  quoU  to  a  province.  .  .  . 

'Therfor,  and  for  satisfactione  to  all  quho  are  satisfiable,  wee  doe  promisse 


'  Gardiner,  Hist,  of  Commontvealth,  i.  337.  -  Lialfour,  iv.  113. 


SCOTLAND'S  THREE  RULERS  21 

and  sweare,  that  wee  shall  manteine  the  trew  religione,  as  it  is  established  in 
Scotland ;  the  couenant,  leauge  and  couenant ;  the  Kings  Maiesties  persone, 
prerogatiue,  gratnes,  and  authoritie ;  the  preulidges  of  parliament  and  fredome  of 
the  subiects, 

So  helpe  ws  God. 

Sic  subscribitur, 

Huntley.  Pat.  Grhame. 

Athole.  Sr  Geo.  Monro. 

Seaforth.  Th.  Mackenzie. 

St.  Clare.  Jo.  Gordon. 

Jo.  Mideltone.  Wanderrosse. 
W.  Horrie,  etc'  ^ 

Middleton  sent  a  covering  letter  explaining  that  the  aim  of  the  new 
Engagers  was  simply  union  and  the  avoiding  of  bloodshed  among 
brother  Scots. 

The  Commission  of  the  Church,  on  the  motion  of  James  Guthrie, 
resolved  on  Middleton's  summary  excommunication.- 

Two  days  after  the  Bond  was  signed  the  King  and  the  Committee  Collapse  of 
of  Estates  published  an  'Acte  of  Pardon  and   Indemnitie'  to  these    °P"'^ 

i  rising. 

rebels  on  condition  that  they  laid  down  their  arms.  This  alteration 
of  the  circumstances  gave  the  King,  Committee  of  Estates,  and  Com- 
mission a  reason  for  requesting  Guthrie  to  stay  the  excommunication, 
with  which  he  was  entrusted,  but  Guthrie  was  too  much  in  earnest, 
and  laid  the  ban  on  Middleton  in  Stirling  Church.  On  4th  November 
Leslie  received  their  submission  at  Strathbogie.  The  whole  move- 
ment was  a  crafty  device  to  unify  the  forces  of  the  Crown  on  a  field 
where  the  principle  of  patriotism  was  to  be  recognised  as  of  first 
importance  in  the  crisis.  In  taking  action,  men  were  to  consider  that 
patriotism  took  precedence  of  Covenanted  religion.  This  was  a 
demand  the  least  likely  to  appeal  to  Strachan  and  his  unbending 
Whiggamores.  This  party,  which  Carlyle  styles  'the  old  VVhigga- 
more  Raid  of  1648  under  a  new  figure,'  had  already  mustered  over 
four  thousand  men  in  the  western  shires  under  Colonels  Strachan  and  whiggamore 
Gilbert  Ker.  They  held  a  conference  at  Dumfries,  when  Wariston  ^°°^7rks" "' 
gave  them  assistance  in  framing  a  policy  and  pronouncement  antago- 

'  Balfour,  iv.  i2y.  =  Row,  B/u//;  244. 


22 


THE  COVENANTERS 


The  Remon- 
strance— a 
Western 
Covenant, 
17th  October 
1650. 


Views  of  the 
Remonstrants. 


nistic  to  the  new  coalition.'  Strachan  had  opened  friendly  correspond- 
ence with  Cromwell,  who,  after  sending  to  the  Committee  of  Estates 
a  firm  letter  stating  that  any  blood  further  shed  in  defence  of  their 
Malignant  King  would  lie  on  their  heads,  on  9th  October  marched  to 
Glasgow,  expecting  a  junction  with  the  westland  men."  On  17th 
October,  the  Dumfries  manifesto  was  ready  for  presentation  to  the 
Estates  by  Patrick  Gillespie  and  John  Stirling.  It  had  the  following 
title :  The  Hzimble  Remonstrance  of  the  Gentlemen,  Commanders 
and  Ministers,  attending  the  Forces  in  the  West.  This  extraordinary 
document,  prolix  as  all  those  visded  by  Wariston  are,  attributed  the 
Lord's  wrath  to — 

(i)  The  admission  of  Charles  to  the  Covenant  without  proof  of 
the  reality  of  his  professions. 

(2)  Provoking  God  by  the  hasty  conclusion  of  the  Treaty,  after 
the  '  unstraight  dealling  '  of  Charles  stood  disclosed,  thus  palliating  his 
dissimulation. 

(3)  The  King's  action  in  conjunction  with  the  apostate  Montrose 
and  other  Malignants  and  Papists,  in  opposition  to  the  work  of  God 
and  the  Covenant. 

(4)  The  unjust  design  of  some  to  invade  England  to  obtain  booty 
and  to  force  a  king  upon  an  independent  nation. 

(5)  Backsliding  from  the  Covenant,  neglecting  to  fill  public  offices 
with  Covenanters,  and  tolerating  Malignants. 

(6)  The  sins  of  covetousness,  extortion,  self-seeking,  and  trust  in 
the  flesh  instead  of  in  God.^ 

'  It  closed,'  wrote  Baillie,  '  with  a  solemn  engadgement  on  all  their 
hearts  (if  God  blessed  their  armies)  to  see  all  these  things  performed.'  ^ 

The  Remonstrants  were  careful  to  object  to  being  classed  with 
Sectaries  and  Levellers,  and  demanded  the  putting  away  of  the  sins 

'  Tlie  Remonstrant  forces  besieged  and  fired  the  house  of  Drunilanrig,  wasting  the  lands 
and  taking  away  the  crops  and  plenishing  of  the  tenantry,  in  October  1650.  In  1661  the  Earl 
of  Quecnsberry  pursued  Wariston,  Gilbert  Ker,  Stair,  and  other  westland  landlords  with 
Captain  John  Gordon,  'wha  burnt  the  gaits,'  Patrick  Gillespie,  John  Nevay,  and  other 
He  was  awarded  ^2000  sterling  by  Parliament  :  Ramage,  Drumlanrig  and  the 
Act.  Pari.  Scof.,  vi.  ii.  6371^  ;  vii.  95.  -  Letter  cl.  ;  Balfour,  iv.  161. 


ministers. 
Douglaaes,  4''>52 
^  Balfour,  iv.  141 


Peterkin,  Records,  604  ;  Row,  Blair,  246. 


'  Letters,  iii.  119. 


SCOTLAND'S  THREE  RULERS  23 

of  the  King  and  people  before  they  would  join  the  royal  army.  This 
possibility  of  union,  making  these  demands  '  too  low  for  his  meridian,' 
was  the  factor  constraining  Strachan  to  resign  the  command  of  the 
Kirk  regiment  and  to  seek  refuge  with  Cromwell.  The  fiery  Patrick 
Gillespie  afterwards  crystallised  in  a  few  words  the  demands  of  his 
party,  when  in  his  '  pride  of  stomack  '  he  declared,  '  that  a  hypocrite 
ought  not  to  reign  over  us ;  that  we  ought  to  treat  with  Cromwell 
and  give  him  securitie  not  to  trouble  England  with  a  king ;  and,  who 
[soever]  marred  this  treatie,  the  blood  of  the  slaine  in  this  quarrell 
should  be  on  their  head.' '  There  were  extremer  men  than  these,  such 
as  the  two  Cants  of  Aberdeen,  who  were  so  patriotic  as  to  maintain 
that  one  crown  was  enough  for  any  man.^ 

The   Committee  of  Estates  saw  that  the   Remonstrance  tended  committee  of 
to  undo  their  labours  for  unity,  and  after  a  fruitless  conference  with  ^'''^'" '^°"" 

deran  the 

the  Commission  of  Assembly  on  the  subject,  they,  on  25th  November,  Remonstrance, 
resolved  to  suppress  it.  Argyll,  Balcarres,  Lothian,  and  Lord 
Advocate  Nicolson  were  loud  in  disapproval  of  it  as  a  divisive, 
scandalous,  and  treasonable  production,  and  of  Hope,  Guthrie,  and 
Gillespie  as  contrivers  of  the  national  mischiefs.  Burleigh,  Wariston, 
and  Sir  James  Hope  as  strongly  defended  it.  However,  the  Re- 
monstrance was  voted  to  be  scandalous,  and  Argyll  and  two  others 
were  commissioned  to  ask  the  Assembly  to  condemn  it  and  its 
promoters,  and  to  impeach  Guthrie  and  Gillespie.  The  Commission 
of  the  Assembly  on  28th  November,  with  some  diplomacy,  admitted 
that  the  Remonstrance  contained  '  sad  truths,'  no  doubt,  '  apt  to  breid 
division  in  Kirk  and  Kingdom,'  but,  since  they  loved  the  'godlie 
men  '  who  framed  it,  they  would  defer  criticism  until  these  '  worthy 
gentlemen'  had  an  opportunity,  at  another  diet,  to  explain  their 
intentions.^  Guthrie,  Patrick  Gillespie,  and  others  protested  against 
this  finding. 

Perth  was  now  the  seat  of  the  Government,  and  Parliament  met 
there  on  26th  November  1650.      The  King,  in  his  speech,  acknow- 

•  BaWVie,  LeiUrs,  \n.  124.  *  Balfour,  iv.  161. 

'  lit'd,  iv.  174  ;  Row,  B/at'y,  24S. 


24 


THE  COVENANTERS 


The  King's 
vow. 


Whiggamores 
crushed. 


ledged  himself  to  be  Sovereign  of  'three  Covenanted  kingdoms,'  and 
that  God  had  'moved  me  to  enter  a  covenant  with  His  people  (a 
favour  no  other  king  can  claime),  and  that  He  inclyned  me  to  a 
resolutione,  by  His  assistance,  to  live  and  dye  with  my  people  in 
defence  of  it.  This  is  my  resolutione,  I  professe  it  before  God  and 
you,  and  in  testimony  heirof,  I  desyre  to  renew  it  in  your  presence  ; 
and  if  it  pleis  God  to  lenthen  my  dayes,  I  houpe  my  actions  shall 
demonstrat  it.'*  This  blasphemous  vow  was  of  a  piece  with  the 
vulgar  outrage  on  religion  about  to  be  perpetrated  in  Scone,  and 
with  the  dishonour  of  the  political  opportunists,  who  publicly  enforced 
the  Covenants  and  Act  of  Classes,  while  they  welcomed  the  return 
to  Parliament  of  men  who  hated  these  bonds.  The  Church  was 
made  the  confessional  for  aspirants  to  place,  and  Parliament  a 
meeting-house  for  pious  dissemblers,  from  the  hour  when  Argyll 
became  bewitched  with  the  promises  of  relief  from  his  bankruptcy, 
of  advancement  to  ducal  honours,  and  of  the  marriage  of  Charles 
to  his  daughter,  Ann — a  king's  barter  for  a  subject's  honesty.^ 
Swashbucklers,  such  as  James  Turner,  laughed  at  the  credulity  of 
the  clergy. 

Colonel  Robert  Montgomery  was  commissioned  to  crush  the 
western  army  if  it  refused  co-operation  with  the  Nationalist  party  ; 
but,  while  Parliament  sat,  he  was  able  to  report  that  General 
Lambert  had  routed  the  Covenanters  at  Hamilton  on  ist  December, 
and  captured  Ker,  who  was  wounded.  Ker  was  sent  to  an  English 
prison,  where  he  was  consoled  by  sentimental  letters  from  Samuel 
Rutherford.  Strachan  vainly  made  a  final  effort  to  rally  the 
Whiggamores  before  he  sought  refuge  at  Cromwell's  headquarters 
in  Edinburgh.  On  24th  December  the  Castle  of  Edinburgh  was 
delivered  up,  before  Cromwell's  heavy  ordnance  could  pound  it  into 
submission,  and  soon  the  Lowlands,  a  few  guerillas  excepted,  were 
in  English  hands. 

The  Estates  agreed  to  the  coronation  of  Charles,  authorised 
that  outward  compliance  with  the  Covenants  should  be  the  right  of 

'  Balfour,  iv.  185  ;  Act.  Pail.  Scol.,  vi.  ii.  boZa.         -  Gardiner,  Hist,  of  Commonwealth,  i.  349. 


SCOTLAND'S  THREE  RULERS  25 

entrance  to  the  Royalist  ranks,  and  contemplated  penal  Acts  against  Origin  of  the 

.,.^  .  T-  •  1  11  11  Resolutioners. 

compilers  with  the  Sectaries.  Forgetting  the  old  troubles  over 
jurisdiction,  they  menacingly  ordered  Robert  Douglas  to  convene 
the  Commission  of  Assembly  in  Perth  on  12th  December,  and  to 
obtain  a  judgment  on  the  main  question  then  at  issue,  namely, 
whether  it  was  lawful  to  reinstate  those  formerly  purged  out  of 
the  army  by  the  Act  of  Classes.  A  quorum,  chiefly  of  Fife  ministers, 
assembled,  and  a  majority,  homologating  the  crafty  proposition  that 
it  was  a  virtue  to  follow  a  Covenanted  King,  resolved  to  reply  in  the 
affirmative,  that  all  persons  except  excommunicates,  the  forfeited, 
vicious,  Discovenanters  and  professed  enemies  of  God's  cause, 
were  eligible  for  defence  of  their  country  against  the  Sectaries. 
That  was  the  first  resolution.  The  Commission  received  a  second 
query  on  19th  March  as  to  the  lawfulness  of  admitting  to  the 
Committee  of  Estates  persons  formerly  debarred,  but  now  after 
satisfaction  admitted  to  the  Covenant.  On  this  point  the  second 
resolution  was  not  intended  to  afford  a  full  answer;  at  the  same 
time,  the  Commission  desired  Parliament  to  admit  to  the  Committee 
all  save  a  few  '  pryme  actors  against  the  state.'  ^  Those  who  upheld 
those  resolutions  were  henceforth  styled  Resolutioners,  and  those 
Remonstrants  who  protested  against  them  were  afterwards  called 
Protesters.'-^  The  reply  of  the  Commission  gave  great  offence  to 
the  anti-Malignant  party,  and  several  of  their  leaders — Wariston, 
Chiesley,  and  others — dissociated  themselves  from  assenters  to  the 
new  policy,  and  with  army  officers  left  their  appointments  on  the 
ground  that  there  was  a  departure  from  principle.  The  Presbytery 
of  Stirling  made  a  strong  protest,  which  Cromwell  caused  to  be 
printed  with  the  title  :  A  Remonstrance  of  the  Presbytery  of  Stirling 
against  the  present  conjunction  with  the  Malignant  party}  The 
tendency  of  the  extremists  of  the  Covenanting  party  was  towards 

'  Balfour,  iv.  197,  270. 

-  Six  hundred  ministers  adhered  to  the  resolutions,  and,  with  the  exception  of  forty,  all 
conformed  to  Episcopacy  in  166 1  :  Life  0/  Blair,  362  note.  Other  authorities  reckon  there 
were  seven  hundred  and  fifty  Resolutioners  :  Thurloe,  Stale  Pap.,  iv.  557-S;  Baillie,  Letlcrs, 
iii.  299.  ^  Row,  Blair,  256. 

VOL.   11.  D 


26  THE  COVENANTERS 

an  alliance  with  the  English  Sectaries,  which  caused  the  Commission, 
early  in  165 1,  to  issue  an  Act  censuring  those  who  complied  with  the 
Sectarian  army.  Some  of  the  Protesters  visited  Cromwell  in  Glasgow 
and  discussed  the  situation  with  him. 

This  acknowledgment  by  the  ministers  was  all  the  politicians 
wanted.  An  Act  summoning  fresh  levies,  the  penitents  included,  was 
passed  on  23rd  December.  This  was  the  signal  for  the  King's 
supporters  to  rush  to  church  to  be  shriven  and  made  eligible  to  attend 
at  the  coronation  on  New  Year's  Day.  On  the  other  hand,  all  that 
could  be  done  for  the  slaves  taken  at  Dunbar  was  to  read  their 
petition  before  enlisting  other  dastards,  who  met  a  worse  fate  at 
Church  ordains  Worcester.  Bcfore  Parliament  adjourned  till  5th  February,  the 
humiifation.  Church,  Still  anxious  to  secure  a  divine  blessing  on  these  dubious 
movements,  ordained  two  preparatory  services— Sabbath,  22nd  Decem- 
ber, being  devoted  to  fasting  and  humiliation  for  the  national  sins, 
and  the  Thursday  thereafter  for  the  particular  sins  of  the  Stuart 
dynasty.^  Charles  was  dutiful  and  gracious  enough  to  fast  and 
mourn  with  his  subjects.  After  the  penance  was  over  he  slyly  said, 
'  I  think  I  must  repent  too  that  ever  I  was  born.'  As  remarkable  a 
scene  took  place  in  Largo  church,  when  the  worldling,  Lauderdale, 
compeared  to  own  his  sin,  and  heard  Mr.  James  Makgill  descant  on 
Rehoboam  from  the  text,  '  And  when  he  humbled  himself  the  wrath 
of  the  Lord  turned  from  him.'  Thereafter  Lauderdale  lifted  up  his 
right  hand  and  swore  both  Covenants."  General  Middleton  was  even 
more  docile,  and  donned  the  sackcloth  uniform  of  a  penitent  excom- 
municate in  Dundee  church,  on  12th  January,  in  order  to  obtain  his 
certificate.  To  keep  the  balance  true,  that  very  day  in  Perth, 
Strachan  was  excommunicated  and  'delivered  to  the  devil.'*  Every- 
thing was  in  train  for  the  restoration  of  the  power  of  the  Crown. 

Two  miles   north-west  from  Perth,  overlooking  the  Tay,  stood 
the  ancient  palace  of  Scone,  and  near  by  a  new  parish  church,  built 

'  Cf.  Patrick  Gillespie's  sermon,  Rulers'  Sins  the  Causes  of  National  Judgments,  or  a 
Sermon  preached  at  the  fast  upon  the  2bth  Day  of  December  1650. 

2  Lamont,  Diary,  25  ;  Minutes  of  Presbyteries  of  St.  Andrews  and  Cupar,  60,  61  (Abbots- 
ford  Club).  '  Balfour,  iv.  240. 


SCOTLAND'S  THREE  RULERS  27 

out  of  the  old  abbey.  To  that  sacred  'Mount  of  Belief  the  Kings 
of  Alban  came  to  sit  on  the  Lia  Fail,  or  Stone  of  Destiny,  and 
be  crowned.  There  Charles  11.  also  came  to  take  his  '  tottering 
crown '  and  brook  his  realm,  although  the  fabulous  palladium  now 
rested  on  foreign  soil.  Coronation  day  was  ist  January  1651,  but  coronation  of 
the  brilliancy  of  that  of  1633  could  not  be  reproduced  in  the  dead  of  ^^^'^^^^^^  ^ 
winter,  when  many  misfortunes  had  thrown  a  cloud  over  the  land,  January  1651. 
and  dissipated  its  seasonable  joy.'  The  bishops  were  gone,  the 
English  glory  shone  in  a  hostile  camp,  and  sour  Scots  faces  looked 
from  beneath  clerical  hats  and  iron  bonnets.  Into  the  upholstered 
church  the  Prince,  the  Honours,  and  the  Estates  of  Scotland  were 
ushered.  The  elevated  throne  was  vacant.  A  chair  afforded  the 
Prince  a  seat  before  the  pulpit,  in  which  the  then  Moderator,  Robert 
Douglas,  a  kinglike  man,  with  royal  blood  in  his  veins  according  to 
whisperers  about  Queen  Mary,  and  a  manly  Resolutioner,  was  stand- 
ing. Charles  could  not  forget  him  of  the  dark  Dunfermline  days. 
The  ancient  ceremonial  he  had  to  conduct  was  to  be  shorn  of  the 
anointing  as  savouring  of  superstition,  and  to  be  made  more  effective 
by  sustained  advices.  After  prayer,  the  celebrant  expounded  the 
coronation  of  J  cash  and  the  covenant  of  Jehoiada,  and  drew  out 
every  parallel  to  the  case  of  his  Prince.  The  sins  of  the  Stuarts  had 
made  theirs  a  tottering  crown,  which  now  would  fall  if  Charles  put 
on  crown  and  sin  together.  Unction  was  a  popish  device,  with  the 
'  limbs  of  Antichrist,'  put  to  the  door,  and  to  be  exchanged  for  the 
unction  of  Grace.  The  Covenant  bound  the  King  to  the  nation  and 
to  God,  and  must  be  renewed  for  the  maintenance  of  Reformed 
Religion,  the  extirpation  of  false  religion — Popery,  Prelacy,  profanity 
— and  the  unification  of  the  people  under  the  Crown,  Parliament,  and 
Church  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  national  liberties.  The  people  expected 
their  King  to  remember  his  father's  sins  and  turn  good  like  Joash,  to 
purge  the  Court,  cleanse  the  Church,  and  reform  the  masses  and 
himself.  With  the  tormenting  spirit  of  a  risen  Buchanan  or  Melville 
he  trounced  all  round,  and  while  disowning  extremists,  said  a  chari- 

'  Gaillie,  Letters,  iii.  127. 


28  THE  COVENANTERS 

table  word  for  the  enlistment  of  penitent  Malignants.  The  Covenant 
was  the  sine  qua  non.  Although  '  prayers  are  not  much  in  request  at 
Court,'  said  he,  the  King  must  pray  and  prevail.  He  must  avoid  the 
euilt  of  his  meddlesome  grandsire,  who  laid  the  foundation  for  the 
mischief  done  by  his  father.  On  this  doctrine  Douglas  besought  a 
blessing. 

The  representatives  of  the  people  in  the  General  Assembly 
marched  in  and  formed  a  bodyguard  at  the  pulpit  stairs.  The  two 
fateful  Covenants,  1638  and  1643,  written  on  one  fair  parchment, 
were  produced  and  tediously  read.  The  Moderator  proceeded  to 
pray  that  grace  might  be  given  to  Charles  to  keep  his  vows.  Charles 
knelt,  held  up  his  right  hand,  then  swore  this  oath  : — 

King  Charles's  '  I>  Charles,  King  of  Great  Britain,  France  and  Ireland,  do  assert  and  declare, 

oath.  by  my  solemn  Oath,  in  the  Presence  of  Almighty  God,  the  Searcher  of  Hearts,  my 

Allowance  and  Approbation  of  the  National  Covenant,  and  of  the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant,  above  written,  and  faithfully  oblige  myself  to  prosecute  the  Ends 
thereof  in  my  Station  and  Calling ;  and  that  I  for  Myself  and  Successors  shall 
consent  and  agree  to  all  Acts  of  Parliament  enjoining  the  National  Covenant 
and  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  and  fully  establishing  Presbyterial  Government, 
the  Directory  for  Worship,  Confession  of  Faith,  and  Catechisms,  in  the  Kingdom 
of  Scotland,  as  they  are  approven  by  the  General  Assemblies  of  this  Kirk,  and 
Parliaments  of  this  Kingdom ;  and  that  I  shall  give  my  royal  assent  to  Acts  or 
Ordinances  of  Parliament  passed,  or  to  be  passed,  enjoining  the  same  in  my  other 
Dominions :  And  that  I  shall  observe  these  in  my  own  Practice  and  Family,  and 
shall  never  make  Opposition  to  any  of  these,  or  endeavour  any  change  thereof.' 

Charles  then  subscribed  the  Covenants — (National,  and  Solemn 
League) — to  which  the  King's  oath  was  subjoined.  He  ascended  the 
platform,  showing  himself,  and  the  Lyon-King  demanded  assent  to 
his  election.  The  audience  responded,  '  God  save  the  King,  Charles 
the  Second.'  He  descended.  The  Moderator  at  the  head  of  the 
clergy  asked  if  he  would  take  the  Coronation  Oath  appointed  by  the 
first  Parliament  of  James  vi.,  and  found  him  willing.  He  knelt  again, 
lifted  up  his  right  hand,  and  swore  the  oath.     After  being  robed  in 

•  The  Covenant  signed  by  Charles  is  preserved  in  the  Bodleian  Library  :  Clarendon 
MSS.,  vol.  40  f.  80  {Cal.  Clar.  State  Pap.^dj,  No.  347).  Cf.  Appendix.  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  VI.  ii. 
161,  7  Feb.  1649;  Decl.  Gen.  Assent.,  27  July  1649;  Bute,  Scottish  Coronations,  192-3  ; 
NicoU,  42-7.     Cf.  facsimile  facing  page  2  of  this  volume. 


SCOTLAND'S  THREE  RULERS  29 

purple,  the  Prince  was  asked  to  take  the  Sword  of  State  in  defence  of  xheCorona- 
the  Faith,  the  Church,  the  Covenants,  and  Justice.  Douglas  prayed ''°" '^  ^''°'"'' 
God  to  purge  the  Crown  of  the  sins  of  Charles.  Argyll  placed  it  on 
his  head.  The  nobles  touched  it  and  swore  allegiance.  The  Earl  of 
Crawford  and  Lindsay  placed  the  sceptre  in  his  hand,  whereupon 
Argyll  conducted  him  to  the  throne.  For  the  first  time  in  the 
national  history  had  laymen  ousted  the  Church  from  the  office  of 
proffering  the  symbols  of  sovereignty  to  the  Monarch.  Again 
Douglas  interpreted  the  function,  and  warned  Charles  of  the  Stuart 
sins.  A  royal  pardon  was  proclaimed.  The  King  showed  himself 
to  the  crowd,  who  shouted  'God  save  the  King.' 

On  his  return,  the  catalogue  of  the  Scots  Kings  was  recited. 
The  Lords  swore  to  be  the  King's  liegemen  according  to  the 
Covenants,  then  kissed  the  royal  cheek.  Standing,  Charles  received 
the  benediction.  Douglas  had  still  his  peroration  to  give,  and, 
harping  on  the  Covenants,  adjured  ruler  and  ruled  that  if  they  broke 
the  Covenants,  God  would  turn  the  King  from  his  throne  and  the 
nobles  from  their  possessions. 

Charles,  in  order  to  evince  his  ingenuousness  and  sincerity, 
appealed  to  his  lieges,  '  that  if  in  any  time  coming  they  did  hear  or 
see  him  breaking  that  Covenant,  they  would  tell  him  of  it,  and  put 
him  in  mind  of  his  oath.'  ^ 

King  James  was  once  more  flagellated,  and  then  the  climax  was  charies,  now 
reached— '  Sir,  you  are  the  only  Covenanted  King  with  God  and  His  kJ;^'"^""'^ 
people    in   the  world.  ...   Be    strong   and   show   yourself  a   man ! ' 
Prayer   followed.      The   congregation   sung   the   Twentieth    Psalm, 
concluding — 

'  Deliver,  Lord,  and  let  the  King 
Us  hear,  when  we  do  call.'  - 

After  the  benediction  was  pronounced,  the  King,  robed,  sceptred,  and 
crowned,  escorted  by  the  Court,  re-entered  the  palace  before  returning 
to  Perth.    When  night  descended  the  hill-tops  gleamed  with  bonfires. 

'  Somers,  Tracts,  vi.  117  ;  Row,  Blair,  256. 
^  Form  of  the  Coronation,  Aldis,  List,  1441-4. 


30  THE  COVENANTERS 

For  an   indecent  outrage  on  religion  and  patriotism  one  could  not 
readily  find  a  match  to  that  perpetrated  at  Scone  by  the  libertine, 
Charles. 
The  secret  Charles  now  had  a  good  pretext  for  encouraging  his  secret  aim  to 

Charles.  revenge  his  father's  death,  to  oust  and  destroy  the  regicides,  and  to 

establish  the  autocracy  cherished  by  the  Stuart  Kings.  At  the  head 
of  a  Scottish  army  of  Royalists,  he  might  retrieve  the  fortunes  of  his 
house.  In  one  ignorant  of  the  complications  of  the  times  such 
enthusiasm  was  natural ;  and  there  was  an  unpardonable  insult  in  the 
shrewd  counsel  of  the  Hope  brothers,  Craighall  and  Hopetoun,  that 
Charles  should  '  treatt  with  Cromwell  for  one  half  of  his  cloake  before 
he  lost  the  quhole.'^  He  ostracised  the  Hopes  and  sought  temporary 
comfort  in  the  advice  of  Argyll,  whose  own  influence  was  waning  on 
account  of  his  defection  from  the  extremists  of  his  own  party.  The 
increasing  success  of  the  new  policy,  whereby  the  King  was  sur- 
rounded by  former  opponents  of  the  rigid  system  of  the  Covenanters, 
resulted  in  the  depreciation  of  Argyll.  Charles  had  already  craved 
Hamilton  to  try  to  mitigate  that  '  rigidness,'  and  in  the  recall  of 
Hamilton  there  was  the  plain  signal  to  Argyll  that  his  power  was  on 
the  wane.  Taking  the  hint,  Argyll  left  the  Court.  Yet,  because 
Charles  conceived  that  the  lever  of  Presbyterianism  in  Scotland  and 
England  could  raise  him  to  dominion,  he  tried  to  fulfil  his  Covenanted 
promises  ;  and,  to  accomplish  the  end  in  view,  offered  to  marry 
Charles  II.  and  Argyll's  daughter,  Ann.  He  asked  his  mother  to  approve  of  this 
Campbe""  Sacrifice  to  a  hated  faith.  But  the  Queen-mother  and  Cardinal 
Mazarin  abhorred  the  regicide  tribe  and  their  compatriots,  and 
rejected  the  base  artifice.  No  one  could  imagine  Charles  imple- 
menting his  betrothal  after  he  had  utilised  Argyll  and  his  redshanks 
in  the  victorious  campaign  of  his  imagination.  In  due  course  the 
match  was  departed  from.^ 

The  raising  of  the  northern  levies  went  on  apace,  notwithstanding 
the  vituperations  of  the  Remonstrant  clergy.     For  their  offence  of 

'  Balfour,  iv.  239. 

^  Gardiner,  Hist,  of  Commonwealth,  i.  301,  349,  352— citing  authorities. 


SCOTLAND'S  THREE  RULERS  31 

preaching  against  the  resolutions  '  as  involving  ane  conjunctione  with 
the  malignant  partie  in  the  land,'  which  they  considered  contrary  to 
the  Word  and  Covenant,  James  Guthrie  and  David  Bennet,  ministers 
of  Stirling,  were  cited  before  the  Committee  of  Estates  and  ordered 
to  remain  in  ward  in  Perth  for  a  time.  On  20th  February,  they  in 
turn  refused  to  acknowledge  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Crown  in  such 
a  purely  ecclesiastical  cause.' 

Charles  sat  with  the  Parliament  when  it  met  in   Perth  on    1 3th  Parliament 
March  under  the  presidency  of  Lord  Burleigh,  who  superseded  Lord  "4h  Marc"  ' 
Loudoun.     The  latter  too  much  favoured  'the  Campbell  faction'  to '^^i- 
be  retained  in  the  chair  at  this  crisis.     The  chief  business  was  to 
elect  Charles  to  be  generalissimo  of  the  army,  to  restore  the  known 
friends  of  the  throne,  and  to  propound  a  query  to  the  Commission 
of  the  Church  as  to  the  advisability  of  reponing  on  the  Committee 
of  Estates  those  persons   debarred    under  former  acts  of  disability. 
While  the  Commission  declined  to  give  a  full  categorical  answer  to 
the  query,  as  before  stated  (p.  25),  they  recommended  the  employ- 
ment of  all  penitents,  excepting  a  few  notable  persons.     They  further 
supported  this  recommendation  by  the  issue  from  Perth,  20th  March 
165 1,  of  an  'Exhortation  and  Warning,'  in  reality  a  patriotic  mani- 
festo, adjuring  the  people  to  rise  under  the  King  and  defend  their 
country.      Even  this  was  not  a  sufficient  concession.     The  Commis- 
sion of  Assembly  was  next  asked  to  agree  to  a  repeal  of  the  '  Act  of 
Classes'  and  to  promote  a  'general  unity.'     The  Commission,  before 
agreeing    to    this    recalcitrant   measure,    stipulated    that    Parliament 
should  first  pass  a  statute  '  for  the  security  of  religion,  the  worke  of  Act  securing 
Reformation,  and  persons  quho  have  beine  steadfast  in  the  Covenant  '^'^^■*"^"'*'^^- 
and  causse.'     The  King  took  an  active  part  in  the  appointment  of  a 
War  Committee,  which  provoked  so  much  dissent  from  the  Argyll 
party  that  the  Chancellor  and  Lothian  flouted  the  King  with  deserting 
his  friends  who   set  him   on  the  throne.     This  desertion  was  more 
apparent  after  the  return  of  the  envoy  with  the  ultimatum  that  Lady 

'  Peterkin,  Records,  639  ;  Balfour,  iv.  247-53,  263. 


32 


THE  COVENANTERS 

The  new  national  policy  was 


2nd  June  1651. 


Military 
successes  of 
Cromwell. 


Ann  Campbell  was  not  to  be  Queen 
not  to  be  guided  by  Argyll,  at  least. 

The  Parliament  met  in  Stirling  in  May,  gave  the  Church  the 
demanded  security  in  an  Act  ratifying  other  relative  Acts  since  1649, 
and  providing  a  bond  whereby  those  excluded  from  Parliament  should 
be  readmitted  on  binding  themselves  not  to  carp  at  these  Acts  and 
Act  of  Classes  their  consequences.  The  Act  of  Classes,  1646,  and  the  Act  of  1649 
repealed,  were  repealed  on  2nd  June.  The  King  had  proved  a  match  for  his 
astute  opponents.^ 

Meantime  Cromwell  had  failed  to  draw  Leslie  off  his  strong  post 
on  the  hills  south  of  Stirling,  and  had  recourse  to  an  unexpected 
movement.  He  established  a  camp  under  Lambert  at  North 
Queensferry,  whence  Lambert  issued  to  attack  and  rout  a  force  of 
Scots  under  Sir  John  Brown  and  Colonel  Holborn  at  Inverkeithing, 
20th  July,  where  2000  Scots  fell,  and  Brown  and  1500  men  were 
captured.  Cromwell  crossed  the  Forth  and  marched  to  Perth,  thus 
getting  between  the  northern  army  under  Middleton  and  Leslie,  and 
leaving  the  way  into  England  open  for  the  latter.  The  apparent 
peril  of  the  situation  was  nullified  by  the  arrangements  made  by 
Cromwell  for  the  movement  of  his  southern  armies.  Despair,  not 
courage,  constrained  the  War  Committee  to  essay  the  rash  enterprise 
to  which  Cromwell  tempted  them."  They  counted  on  a  Royalist 
rising  in  England  and  Wales.  They  were  doomed  to  disappoint- 
ment. The  only  man  of  influence  who  joined  the  invaders  was  the 
Earl  of  Derby  with  300  retainers.  Presbyterians  and  Episcopalians 
equally  looked  askance  at  the  Scots.  English  Presbyterianism  was  in 
a  moribund  condition,  and  its  leaders  knew  their  own  impotency. 

On  31st  July,  Charles  and  Leslie  with  20,000  men  left  Stirling  for 
Carlisle  by  way  of  Annandale  and  Eskdale.  Argyll,  Loudoun,  and  the 
party  of  conciliation  stood  aloof  from  this  mad  enterprise,  and  allowed 
Hamilton  and  the  pretended  penitents  to  march  to  disaster.     Charles 

'  Balfour,  iv.  301-7;  Act.  Pari.  .Scot.,  vi.  ii.  672-7;  Act,  Sth  January  1646;  Act,  23rd 
January  1649  :  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  VI.  i.  503  ;  VI.  ii.  143. 

'^  Hamilton  to  Crofts,  8th  August  :  Cary,  Memoirs,  ii.  305. 


Charles  and 
Scots  army 
march  into 
England. 


SCOTLAND'S  THREE  RULERS  33 

and  his  16,000  wearied  followers  reached  Worcester  on  22nd  Ausfust. 
Four  days  later  he  issued  a  manifesto  declaring  for  the  Covenant,  and 
promising  an  Act  of  Oblivion  for  all  except  the  regicides.  Cromwell 
followed  hard  upon  his  heels,  while  the  armies  of  Harrison,  Fleetwood, 
and  Lambeth  bore  down  upon  Charles.  Cromwell,  taking  the  east 
coast  road  as  far  as  Durham,  crossed  central  England,  passed  through 
Stratford-on-Avon  and  entered  Evesham,  between  Worcester  and 
London,  on  27th  August.  The  Parliamentary  forces  were  double 
those  of  the  Scots. 

Leslie  drew  up  his  army  on  the  right  or  western  bank  of  the  Battle  of 
Severn,  in  a  corner  where  the  Teme  joins  the  Severn,  and  he  3rd  September 
destroyed  the  bridge  over  the  Teme.  It  was  the  anniversary  of  the  '^5i- 
rout  of  Dunbar,  3rd  September.  Cromwell  lay  to  the  east  across  the 
river.  He  divided  his  force  into  three  :  one  division  lay  across 
the  road  to  London,  another  moved  south  and  lay  ready  to  cross  the 
Severn,  and  the  third  crossed  in  the  south  and  marched  up  to  the 
Teme.  The  movement  of  these  two  divisions  over  two  bridg-es  of 
boats  succeeded.  The  Scots  were  stubbornly  driven  from  hedge  to 
hedge  into  Worcester  city.  Charles  watched  the  unequal  fight  from 
the  cathedral  tower.  He  saw  the  weakening  of  the  division  on  the 
London  road,  and  hurled  troops  through  the  Sudbury  gate,  and 
himself  gallantly  charged  against  the  enemy.  At  first  the  English 
gave  way.  Cromwell  himself  hurried  back  over  the  bridge  of  boats 
with  reinforcements,  and,  gallantly  leading  his  men,  repelled  the 
Scots  and  made  them  break.  The  Ironsides  cut  them  to  pieces. 
Capturing  '  Fort  Royal,'  Cromwell  turned  its  guns  upon  the  fugitives 
fleeing  through  the  streets.  Charles  was  reluctant  to  fly.  '  Shoot  me 
dead,'  said  he,  'rather  than  let  me  live  to  see  the  sad  consequences 
of  this  day.''  Into  every  avenue  where  the  Scots  ran  they  fell  into 
cleverly  prepared  traps.  Few  escaped  death  or  capture."  The 
peasantry  helped  the  regulars  to  wipe  out  the  invaders.  The 
baggage  and  munitions  of  war  were  all  taken.  Of  prisoners  over  six 
thousand   were   brought   in,    including    Leslie,    Rothes,    Lauderdale, 

'  Airy,  Charles  II.,  i6l.  *  Firth,  Oliver  Cromwell,  291. 

VOL.  II.  E 


34 


THE  COVENANTERS 


King  Charles. 


Kelly,  Middleton,  Montgomery,  Thomas  Dalyell  (Binns),  and  many 
other  officers,  as  well  as  nine  ministers.^  The  Duke  of  Hamilton, 
before  he  died  of  his  wounds,  had  four  painful  days  given  him  in 
which  to  ponder  over  that  essay  on  death  and  immortality  which  he 
wrote  the  night  before  the  battle.  The  Earl  of  Derby,  by  recovering 
from  his  wounds,  met  a  worse  fate  on  the  traitor's  block  at  Bolton. 
Wanderings  of  The  King  escaped.  For  six  weeks,  there  followed  the  romantic  hunt 
and  hair-breadth  escapes  in  circumstances  evincing  devotion  only 
equalled  in  that  shown  to  '  Bonnie  Prince  Charlie.'  His  adherents 
scorned  the  reward  offered  for  him.  Yet  he  preferred  his  terrible 
privations  to  seeking  security  among  the  Scots.  They  afterwards 
had  a  feeble  joke  at  his  expense,  saying  their  Achan  hid  himself  in 
an  aik  (oak).  At  length,  in  the  unsanitary  plight  of  dirty  vagrants, 
Charles,  with  his  companion  Wilmot,  reached  France  on  i6th  October 
and  cast  himself,  a  starveling,  on  the  charity  of  friends."  The  Pope 
would  not  grant  him  a  subsidy  until  he  implemented  in  face  of  Holy 
Church  his  proposal  to  be  converted  to  Romanism.^ 

Argyll,  as  soon  as  Charles  took  command  of  his  army,  with 
Hamilton  as  lieutenant-general  and  Leslie  as  major-general,  realised 
that  his  Sovereign  discounted  the  Campbells  as  a  military  factor. 
While  the  Scots  levies  were  being  dragged  reluctantly  into  the  field, 
and  cavaliers  were  counterfeiting  repentance  in  order  to  obtain 
mercenary  employment  in  the  so-called  army  of  patriots,  the  Assembly 
was  endeavouring  to  silence  the  dissentients  from  the  Royalist  policy. 
It  met  in  St.  Andrews  on  i6th  July,  and  Balcarres  was  Commissioner. 
Members  had  the  unedifying  experience  of  hearing  Andrew  Cant 
open  the  meeting  with  a  condemnation  of  the  recalcitrant  policy,  and 
Douglas,  the  Moderator,  traverse  Cant's  opinions.  Before  the  business 
was  allowed  to  begin,  Guthrie  protested  against  certain  members 
taking  their  seats,  while  Professor  John  Menzies,  Aberdeen,  proposed 
debarring  the  whole  Commission  for  their  defections.     There  was  the 

'  Lament,  43. 

-  Cf.  extant  begging  letters  to  John  Knox,  minister  of  Leith,  3rd  and  4th  August  1652,  as  to 
his  'straights  and  necesitys.'  Sold  by  W.  Brown,  Bookseller,  Edinburgh.  His  'friend' 
Knox  was  deprived  in  1662  !  -^  Airy,  168. 


Assembly  at 
St.  Andrews, 
Perth,  and 
Dundee,  in 
July  1651. 


SCOTLAND'S  THREE  RULERS  35 

usual  wrangle,  Douglas  challenging  this  slander,  and  Blair  offering 
mediation.  Rutherford,  and  other  twenty-one  sympathisers,  protested 
against  the  meeting  as  unconstitutional/  The  Resolutioners  voted 
Douglas  into  the  chair.  The  temper  of  the  diets  was  not  improved 
by  an  impolitic  request  from  the  King  that  the  opponents  of  the 
Resolutions  should  be  censured,  nor  by  a  trenchant  epistle  from 
Wariston.  Before  they  could  settle  to  legislation,  the  news  from 
Inverkeithing  made  them  seek  safety  in  Dundee.  There,  on  22nd 
July,  Rutherford's  cogent  Protest  declining  the  Assembly  was  read. 
Balcarres  in  vain  demanded  that  the  twenty-two  absent  Protesters  Deposition  of 
should  be  reported  for  civil  punishment  for  their  reflections  on  the 
King,  Parliament,  and  Church.  The  Assembly  ordered  Presbyteries 
to  deal  with  them.  It  was  ultimately  agreed  to  cite  Guthrie,  Patrick 
Gillespie,  James  Simson,  James  Naismith,  and  John  Menzies.  They  did 
*  not  compear.  The  Assembly  deposed  Guthrie,  Gillespie,  and  Simson, 
suspended  Naismith,  and  referred  Menzies  to  the  Commission.^ 

After  the  meeting  of  the  Assembly  at  St.  Andrews,  a  work  was 
published  entitled  A  Vindication  of  the  Freedom  and  Lawfulness  of 
the  late  Asse?nbly,  etc.^ 

This  was  answered  by  The  Nullity  of  the  Pretended  Assembly  at 
Saint  Andrews  and  Dundee^ 

This  ill-advised  policy  of  the  Moderates  of  conciliating  a  faithless 
King  and  worthless  politicians  while  coercing  their  conscientious  and 
wiser  co-religionists — the  Protesters — was  for  ever  fatal  to  the  unity 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland.     That  great  schism,  which  the  Covenant 

'  Peterkin,  Records,  631  ;  Lamont,  40.  ^  Row,  Blair,  278. 

'  Vindication,  by  James  Wood  :  Review  by  Guthrie  from  notes  of  Wariston  ;  cf.  Baillie, 
Letters,  iii.  213. 

'  4to,  pp.  312,  1652.  The  Nullity,  p.  79,  gives  list  of  forty  Remonstrants  :  Stranraer, 
TurnbuU  ;  Kirkcudbright,  S.  Row  ;  Wigton,  Richeson  ;  Ayr,  Wylie  ;  Irvine,  Mowet  ;  Dum- 
barton, Henry  Semple  ;  Paisley,  A.  Dunlop  ;  Glasgow,  P.  Gillespie  ;  Hamilton,  Nasmith  ; 
Lanark,  Sommerville ;  Auchterarder,  Murray  ;  Perth,  Rollok  ;  Dunkeld,  Oliphant  ;  Kirkcaldy, 
MoncriefF;  Cupar,  Macgill ;  St.  Andrews,  S.  Rutherfurd ;  Forfar,  Lindsay ;  Arbroath, 
Reynolds  ;  Aberdeen,  Cant ;  Kincardine,  Cant  ;  Dumfries,  Henry  Henderson  ;  Penpont, 
Samuel  Austine ;  Lochmaben,  Thomas  Henderson ;  Middlebie,  David  Lang  ;  Jedburgh, 
John  Livingston  ;  Turriff,  Mitchell ;  Garioch,  Tellifer  ;  Kelso,  Summervail ;  Earlstoun,  John 
Veitch  ;  Chirnside,  Ramsay  ;  Edinburgh,  Robert  Trail  ;  Linlithgow,  Melvill ;  Biggar,  Living- 
stone ;  Dalkeith,  Sinclair  ;  Stirling,  James  Guthrie  ;  Deer,  Keith  ;  Elgin,  Brodie  ;  Inveraray, 
Gordon  ;  Dundee,  Oliphant. 


36  THE  COVENANTERS 

itself  banned,  and  time  never  remedied,  was  not  the  only  fruit  of  this 
Laodicean  assembly. 

The  public  Resolutions  were  a  source  of  discord  to  both  sections 
of  the  protesting  party — those  who,  like  James  Guthrie,  held  them  to 
be  unscriptural,  and  those  who  maintained  their  incongruity  with  the 
former  resolutions  of  the  Church  to  be  done  with  the  Malignant  party. 
But  both  sections,  and  many  other  Covenanters  as  well,  held  that 
Sin,  personal,  ministerial,  official,  regal,  and  national,  was  the  root  of 
all  their  domestic  troubles  and  '  The  Causes  of  God's  Wrath  '  on  a 
sinful  land.  They  agreed  that  this  opinion  or  fact  should  be  publicly 
voiced,  and  promulgated  in  express  terms.  When  they  met  to  con- 
descend on  the  form  of  the  declaration,  there  was  division  of  opinion 
and  adjournment  of  debate.  The  Commission  had,  after  Dunbar, 
published  Causes  for  Humiliation,  but  the  anti-Resolutionists  did  not 
consider  them  exhaustive,  at  a  meeting  held  at  Glasgow  in  September 
1 65 1,  which  was  adjourned  to  meet  at  Edinburgh  in  October. 
Thither  the  Protesters  came  by  urgent  request.^    The  whole  questions 

■  The  ministers  and  elders  who  attended  the  'Confessions'  of  the  Ministers  in  165 1,  which 
resulted  in  the  production  of  The  Causes  of'Cod's  Wrath,  were  named  in  the  Process  against 
Wariston  as  follows  :  — 

Thomas  Ramsay  Alexander  Moncrieff 

Samuel  Row  John  Murray 

Thomas  Wyllie  Alexander  Bartane 

John  Nevay  Hugh  Kennedy 

Hary  Semple  John  Sinclair 

Patrick  Gillespie  John  Cleland 

John  Carstairs  Thomas  Hog 

James  Nasmyth  William  Wishart 

Frances  Aird  Robert  Row,  Elders, 
Robert  Lockhart                                             and  laird  of  Hiltoune 

William  Jack  laird  of  Greinhead 

William  Somervell  laird  Dolphinton 

Alexander  Livingston  Sir  James  Melvill 

James  Donaldson  Colonel  Hacket 

Samuel  Rutherford  Lord  Wariston 

James  Guthrie  Sir  John  Cheislie 

Robert  Traill  Archibald  Porteous 

John  Stirling  -  Patrick  Anderson 

James  Symson  George  Gray 

William  Oliphant  Andrew  Hay 

George  Nairn  Colonel  Ker  » 

Gilbert  Hall  (Sir  James  Stewart  ?). 

Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  App.  66. 


SCOTLAND'S  THREE  RULERS  ^y 

of  the  hour,  reh'gious  and  political,  were  discussed,  but  'they  only 
emitted  some  causes  of  a  fast,'  and  declared  the  root  sin  to  be  the 
Restoration/  The  ten  '  General  Heads  of  the  Causes  why  the  Lord 
contends  with  the  land,'  as  agreed  upon  by  the  Commission,  were 
accepted,  and  it  was  agreed  that  these  should  be  amplified,  after  this 
meeting  held  in  October,  as  stated  in  the  work  itself. 

James  Guthrie  is  usually  credited  with  the  clerical  work  of  pre- 
paring the  manifesto — Hugh  Kennedy  also  being  associated  in  it — 
which  appeared  with  the  title,  Causes  of  the  Lords  wrath  against 
Scotland  manifested  in  his  sad  late  Dispensations.  Whereunto  is 
added  a  Paper,  particidarly  holding  forth  the  Sins  of  the  Ministery." 
The  manuscript,  subscribed  by  Wariston,  was  given  by  him  to 
John  Ferrier,  who  carried  it  to  Christopher  Higgins  the  printer,  who, 
in  turn,  executed  the  work  as  instructed  by  Colonel  Fynick.^ 

The  indictment  of  Guthrie  bore  that  he  was  the  compiler, 
but  Guthrie  in  defence  pleaded  that  he  was  only  one  of  the 
compilers  and  enlargers  of  the  'Heads.'''  The  indictment  of 
Wariston  also  accused  him  of  being  art  and  part  in  the  compilation.'' 
Setting  apart  the  fact  that  King  Charles  was  a  pledged  Covenanter, 
the  pamphlet  was  the  rankest  treason  possible.  Otherwise  it  was 
both  legal  and  justifiable.  So  widespread  was  the  influence  of  this 
pamphlet  that  Parliament  enjoined  that  Remonstrators  and  persons 
accessory  to  it  should  remove  ten  miles  from  the  Capital."  It  was 
burned  by  the  common  hangman. 

The  Assembly,  as  if  ashamed  of  the  West  Kirk  Declaration, 
authorised  this  interpretation  of  it :  '  That  the  King's  interest  is  not  to 
be  owned  but  in  subordination  to  God,  the  Kirk  being  ever  willing, 
as  their  duty  is,  to  own  and  maintain  in  their  station  his  Majesty's 
interest  in  that  subordination,  according  to  the  Covenants.' '^ 

'  Row,  Blair,  266,  270  ;  StippL,  285,  286.  -  4I0,  n.p.,  1653,  pp.  98  ;  Aldis,  List,  1472. 

'  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  App.  66.  *  Ibid.,  35,  3O-42. 

^  Ibid.,  10.  "i66i,c.  II.  '  Petcrkin,  i?tfcor^j,  636. 


38 


THE  COVENANTERS 


CHAPTER    XIX 


THE    RULE    OF   THE    IRONSIDES 


Cromwell's 

'  crowning 
mercy. ' 


Cromwell  accepted  his  victory  at  Worcester  as  the  divine  sign  of 
approval  of  a  change  of  government.'  The  day  after  the  battle  he 
sent  a  dispatch  to  Lenthall,  the  Speaker,  in  which  he  restrained  his 
great  exultation,  expressing  the  hope  '  that  the  fatness  of  these 
continued  mercies  may  not  occasion  pride  and  wantonness,'  so  that 
righteousness,  justice,  mercy,  and  truth  might  be  the  nation's  '  thankful 
return  to  our  gracious  God.'  .  .  .  '  The  dimensions  of  this  mercy  are 
above  my  thoughts.  It  is  for  aught  I  know  a  crowning  mercy.'  That 
was  prophetic  ;  the  sword  of  the  Ironside  returned  to  its  scabbard. 
He  had  probably  heard  of  the  success  of  Monck  in  the  north.  While 
the  hunt  ran  on  in  England,  Monck  and  his  subordinates  were  active. 
On  14th  August  the  governor  of  Stirling  Castle  surrendered  that  hold, 
and  left  Monck  free  with  seven  thousand  men  to  invest  Dundee. 

Dundee  in  1651  was  an  exceedingly  opulent,  well-fortified  city, 
whose  roadstead  was  crowded  with  merchantmen,  whose  lock-fast 
places  were  filled  with  the  valuables  of  the  surrounding  districts."  It 
was  held  for  the  Covenanters  by  an  old  campaigner  with  Gustavus 
Adolphus — Major-General  Robert  Lumsden  of  Mountquhanie — whom 
Cromwell  had  captured  at  Dunbar. 

Acting-General  Leven  and  the  Committees  of  State  and  Church 
met  in  Alyth,  on  the  Sidlaw  Hills,  in  order  to  consider  means  for 
thwarting  Monck  and  saving  Dundee.  Well  informed  of  this  inten- 
tion. Colonel  Matthew  Alured  and  eight  hundred  of  Monck's  Horse, 
after  a  bold   night   ride  in  the   rain,  surrounded   the  town  early  on 

'  Letters  clxxxii.,  clxxxiii.  ^  Scotland  aud  Commonwealth,  \\.  (A. 


THE  RULE  OF  THE  IRONSIDES  39 

Thursday  28th  August,  and  captured  the  Council.'  It  is  to  be  hoped  Aiured  cap- 
that  Monck  spared  the  gallant  defenders  of  Dundee  the  galling  sight  counduT 
of  the  procession  of  these  crestfallen  patriots  wending  its  way  down  ^'y'''- 
to  Droughty  Ferry  harbour  to  be  shipped  to  English  prisons — a 
goodly  company,  Leven,  Crawford,  Marischal,  Ogilvy,  Hepburn  of 
Humbie,  Fowlis  of  Colinton,  Cockburn  of  Ormiston,  Fotheringham 
of  Powrie,  Hamilton  of  Bargany,  Archibald  Sydserf,  Colonel  Andrew 
Mill,  and  the  following  clerics  :  the  moderator  Douglas,  the  clerk 
Andrew  Ker,  Mungo  Law,  John  Smith,  James  Hamilton,  John 
Rattray,  minister  of  Alyth,  George  Pitilloch,  junior,  and  the  historical 
James  Sharp,  then  minister  at  Crail.  The  people  seemed  to  think 
'the  loons  were  weel  away,'  since  they  refused  to  pay  a  reek-tax  to 
purchase  the  liberty  of  their  ecclesiastical  leaders.  For  grim  Leven 
it  was  a  sorrier  ending  than  the  ddbdcle  at  Dunbar.  That  argosy  bore 
away  the  last  hope  of  a  crushed  nation.  On  Monck's  demand  that 
the  governor  Lumsden  should  deliver  up  Dundee — a  course  recom- 
mended by  the  city  ministers — a  refusal  was  sent  to  that  '  collericke 
and  merciless  commander.'  -  Monck  began  to  batter  his  way  in,  and  Siege  and  fall 
succeeded  on  ist  September.  According  to  Balfour,  the  '  drunken  °st  September 
deboscht  people'  could  not  resist  the  English  veterans,  who  entered '^S'- 
the  breaches  shouting, '  God  with  us.'  With  no  little  humour  in  so  grim 
a  situation,  each  besieger  displayed  his  shirt  tail  for  a  flying  signal, 
distinguishing-  friend  from  foe  in  the  gory  pursuit.  An  indiscriminate 
carnage  ensued.  Age,  sex,  nor  holy  place  was  respected.  The 
parish  church  was  the  last  stand  of  Lumsden  and  his  braves,  who, 
it  was  said,  were  slaughtered  after  quarter  was  allowed.  It  is  not 
to  the  credit  of  Monck  that  this  brave  man's  head  was  fixed  on  a 
pike  over  the  door  of  the  old  steeple,  unless  Lumsden  had  broken 
his  parole."  The  victors  were  unleashed  for  blood,  lust,  and  loot. 
The  sight  of  a  puling  infant  sucking  the  breast  of  its  dead  mother 
staggered  the  butchers  and  stayed  their  hands.''  After  passion  was 
surfeited  in  this  red  carnival,  the  soldiery  gaily  dressed  themselves, 

'  Scot,  and  Common.,  ii.  g  ;  Lamont,  C/iron.,  41.  ^  Balfour,  iv.  315. 

^  Miller,  Fife  Pictorial,  etc.,  ii.  313.  «  Kidd,  Guide  to  Dundee,  21. 


40  THE  COVENANTERS 

being  undistinguishable  from  officers,  and  swaggered  along  loaded 
with  fortunes.  Prisoners  were  plentiful.  A  fleet  of  one  hundred  and 
ninety  ships  was  captured  in  the  anchorage.  Monck  has  been  accused 
of  descending  to  personal  barbarity  when  he  threatened  to  '  scobe  '  the 
mouth  of  a  minister  who  persisted  in  pleading  for  mercy.^ 
Subjugation  The    Other    fortified    towns    be-north    Tay    soon    capitulated,    as 

i6<;2°"^°  '  ^^'^  Huntly  and  his  men  on  21st  November,  and  Balcarres  on  3rd 
December.  When  Blackness  was  blown  up,  the  Devil,  according  to 
report,  was  seen  sitting  on  its  walls.'  Dunnottar,  under  Ogilvy, 
held  out  till  26th  May  1652.  Hunger  alone  compelled  him  to 
surrender  that  imperious  rock  washed  by  the  German  Ocean,  and 
to  treat  with  Colonel  Morgan,  its  besieger.  In  Dunnottar  were 
deposited  the  Honours  of  Scotland.  By  a  well-conceived  stratagem 
of  Ogilvy  and  Mrs.  Granger,  wife  of  the  minister  of  Kinneff,  the 
ancient  regalia  were  smuggled  out,  and  hidden  in  Kinneff  Church, 
before  the  English  entered  the  fortress.^ 

Scotland,  kingless,  governmentless,  beaten,  lay  at  Cromwell's 
feet.  A  few  garrisons  terrorised  it.  In  February  1652  Monck  left 
the  work  of  disarming  and  pacifying  the  Scots  to  his  successor, 
Major-General  Richard  Deane.  The  aim  of  the  conquerors  was 
to  unify  the  three  kingdoms  in  a  strong  political  confederation  with- 
out regard  to  distinctive  religious  systems.* 

Soon  after  the  battle  of  Worcester,  a  bill  was  introduced  into  the 
English  Parliament  asserting  the  proprietorship  of  the  Commonwealth 
in  Scotland,  and  proposing  the  settlement  of  its  government.  A 
Council  of  twenty-one  persons,  of  whom  Cromwell  was  one,  was 
appointed  to  govern  the  two  conquered  kingdoms.  Early  in  1652 
eight  Commissioners  were  elected  to  visit  Scotland  and  inaugurate 

'  Sco/.  and  Cotnmon.,  12;  Whitclocke,  490;  Jervise,  Memorials,  286;  Maxwell,  Old 
Dundee,  542  ;  Miinic.  Hist,  75  ;  Gumble,  Monck,  42  ;  Gardiner,  Hist,  of  Common.,  ii.  67  ; 
Row,  Blair,  281  ;  Nicoll,  57  ;  Balfour,  iv.  315. 

2  Nicoll,  92. 

^  Scott,  Antiq.,  i.  1-49  ;  Papers  relative  to  the  Regalia,  Bann.  Club,  The  Honours  of 
Scotland,  Scot.  Hist.  Soc,  vol.  xxvi.  ;  Row,  Blair,  332.  For  new  details,  cf.  Scot.  Hist. 
Review,  iv.  15,  309,  April  1907. 

«  Cf.  The  Cromwellian  Union,  C.  .S.  Terry  :  Scot.  Hist.  Soc,  1902. 


THE  RULE  OF  THE  IRONSIDES  41 

the  Government.  They  were  Generals  Monck,  Deane,  and  Lambert, 
Lord  St.  John,  Sir  Harry  Vane  the  younger,  Colonel  Fenwick, 
Major  Soloway,  and  Alderman  Tichborne.'     Crushed  and  humiHated  English 

....        ,  .  ■         annexation  of 

as  Scotland  was,  she  would  not  wilhngly  assent  to  any  mcorporatmg  Scotland, 
union.  Diverse  parties  in  Church  and  State  were  unanimous  in 
rejecting  the  English  resolutions.  In  vain  did  the  conciliatory  Com- 
mission promulgate  a  manifesto,  promising  justice  and  protection, 
as  well  as  enunciating  a  broad  scheme  of  toleration,  with  liberty  of 
worship  to  the  peaceable  and  law-abiding.  Laymen  and  clergy  alike 
remonstrated  that  Protestantism  was  being  menaced,  Sectarianism 
intruded,  spiritual  independence  abolished,  the  Covenants  wiped  out, 
evil  encouraged,  and  the  Constitution  violated.  The  Commissioners 
prohibited  the  exercise  of  all  judicatories  not  licensed  by  Parliament, 
and  forbade  the  subscription  of  oaths  and  Covenants  unless  previously 
sanctioned.  An  Act  abolishing  the  authority  of  Charles  11.  was 
ceremonially  proclaimed,  4th  February,  and  the  destruction  at  the 
Cross  of  Edinburgh  of  the  Royal  Arms  with  every  mark  of  indignity 
showed  the  determination  of  the  victors." 

Nine  days  later,  the  English  Commissioners  met  at  Dalkeith  with  •  The  Tender.' 
representatives  of  the  counties  and  burghs,  and  proffered  to  them 
the  '  Tender,'  or  proposal  of  incorporation  with  England,  after  accept- 
ance of  which  they  were  to  be  consulted  as  to  practical  details. 
Freedom  of  worship  was  guaranteed  to  the  established  and  dissenting 
clergy.  Some  counties  hailed  the  Tender  with  enthusiasm  ;  trading 
centres  were  favourable  to  it ;  but  the  clergy,  more  truly  interpreting 
the  national  feeling,  would  have  none  of  it.  James  Guthrie  and 
other  stalwarts  preached  against  it,  and  suffered  for  their  patriotism 
in  having  troops  quartered  in  their  homes.  Hatred  of  the  Southron 
only  slumbered,  and  frequently  showed  itself  in  armed  risings.  The 
Presbytery  of  Dunfermline  went  so  far  as  to  recommend  the  minister 
of  Dalgetty  not  to  marry  an  English  soldier  to  a  Scots  girl  on  account 
of  the  unlawfulness  of  Cromwell's  invasion.^ 

The  Acts  of  the  Executive,  however,  were  approved  of  by  the 

'  Heath,  Chronicle,  304.  -  Nicoll,  S0-3.  "  Ross,  Glitnpscs,  220. 

VOL.  11.  F 


42  THE  COVENANTERS 

Appointment  Councll  of  State  in  England,  who,  on  6th  April  1652,  sent  down  four 
judgef'^  judges,  Owen,  Smith,  Marsh,  and  Mosely,  to  administer  justice.  The 
Court  of  Session  was  thus  superseded.  To  these  four  Englishmen 
three  Scots  were  added — Sir  John  Hope  of  Craighall,  William 
Lockhart  of  Lee,  John  Swinton  of  Swinton — Hope  being  appointed 
President.  At  a  later  date,  the  impecunious  Johnston  accepted  one 
of  these  judgeships  under  the  title  of  Wariston,  or  Judge  Johnston.' 
The  judges  had  full  power  to  appoint  subordinate  magistrates,  and,  to 
their  credit,  it  may  be  said  that  justice  had  never  before  been  dispensed 
with  so  impartial  a  hand.  The  magistrates  were  as  popular  as  they 
were  effective.  They  undertook  many  duties  now  in  the  province  of 
representative  councils,  such  as  Poor-law  Boards,  Road  Boards,  Trades 
Councils,  Sanitary  Authorities,  and  were  a  terror  to  evil-doers,  and 
protectors  of  the  well-doing. 
Submission  of  Argyll  was  the  last  of  the  powerful  lords  to  submit  to  Monck. 
After  Worcester,  Chancellor  Loudoun  and  he  had  tried  to  galvanise 
into  life  a  provisional  government  and  to  promote  an  arrangement 
with  Monck.  Monck  replied  that  he  could  not  negotiate  without 
instructions  from  the  English  Parliament.  Argyll,  eager  to  vault 
into  power  again,  lingered  in  his  fastnesses  and  in  vain  endeavoured 
to  parley  with  the  Commissioners.  That  his  diplomacy  did  not  inspire 
much  confidence  in  Monck  is  evidenced  from  the  fact  that  after  his 
submission,  26th  April,  Deane  and  an  armed  force  penetrated  the 
lordship  of  Argyle  to  establish  garrisons,  and  to  exact  from  Argyll 
an  unequivocal  submission.  This  he  got  in  August,  Lome  being 
nominated  as  the.  hostage  for  its  exact  fulfilment.  Argyll,  with  his 
curious  fear  of  contingencies,  satisfied  his  conscience  by  declaring  that 
he  agreed  to  the  civil  part  of  Scotland  being  made  into  a  Common- 
wealth with  England — '  My  duty  to  religion  according  to  my  oath  in 
the  Covenant  always  reserved.'  Argyll  at  his  trial  pleaded  that  he 
was  not  a  free  agent  when  he  subscribed  this  submission.'- 

With  the  leading   Resolutioners  out  of  the  way  the  Protesters 

'  Omond,  157  et  scq.  ;  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vi.  ii.  747. 

'  State  Trials,  v.  1427  ;  VVillcock,  280  ;  Wodrow,  i.  144. 


THE  RULE  OF  THE  IRONSIDES  43 

held  an  Assembly  in  Edinburgh,  Livingstone  in  the  chair,  and  after  Rival  Assem- 
disclaiming  the  Assemblies  of  their  opponents,  resolved  to  carry  on  Edinburgh  in 
the  work  of  the  Church/  The  work  of  the  Protesters  was  nugatory.  '^52. 
Another  Assembly,  under  the  presidency  of  David  Dickson,  now 
Professor  of  Divinity  in  Edinburgh,  met  in  the  Capital  on  21st  July 
1652.  The  Protesters  compeared  to  lodge  a  protestation  subscribed 
by  sixty-three  ministers  and  eighty  laymen,  who  declared  the  Assembly 
to  be  'unlawful,  unfrie,  and  unjust.'  The  Assembly  threatened  them 
with  discipline.^  They  retaliated  by  making  common  cause  with  the 
Commonwealth.  Others,  persecuted  for  religion,  also  found  a  court  of 
appeal  in  the  alien  Government.  In  1652  the  Presbytery  of  Aberdeen 
summoned  Sir  Alexander  Irvine  of  Drum  for  alleged  popery.  He 
ignored  their  jurisdiction,  and,  on  being  excommunicated,  appealed  to 
Monck  on  the  ground  that  Presbytery  was  not  authorised  by  the 
Commonwealth.  King  Charles  failed  to  allure  Argyll  from  his  new 
allegiance,  but  other  Highland  chieftains  were  more  easily  incited  to 
take  advantage  of  the  conflict  between  England  and  Holland  and 
to  rise  in  arms  while  Monck  was  absent  in  England.  Scotland  was 
impoverished  beyond  description,  and  what  with  the  confiscation  of 
estates  to  English  officers,  and  the  general  taxation  for  keeping  up 
the  army  of  occupation,  no  fewer  than  35,000  arrestments  for  debt 
were  made.  With  a  beggared  gentry  it  was  not  difficult  to  persuade 
Royalists  such  as  Glencairn,  Balcarres,  Lome,  Kenmure,  Glengarry, 
and  others  to  take  the  field.  Middleton  was  first  selected  to  be 
leader  of  the  enterprise,  but  sickness  laid  him  aside.  Glencairn  Highlanders 
received  the  royal  commission  and  unfurled  the  standard  at   Killin  rfn'Tv^n 

'  Lilencann, 

on  27th  July  1653.^  Robert  Lilburn,  the  Parliamentary  commander, '^ss- 
and  the  Commissioners  considered  Glencairn's  military  diversion  to 
be  a  trivial  outbreak,  and  reckoned  that  the  influence  of  the  Remon- 
strants would  counterbalance  the  new  rebellious  movement.  Still,  the 
clergy  could  not  be  depended  on.  Judge  Hope  declared  that  few  of 
them  were  honest,  and  that  they  twisted  Scripture  to  the  production 

'  Lament,  43  ;,  Row,  Blair,  286.  •  Lamont,  55. 

"  Scot,  and  Common.,  1S6. 


44  THE  COVENANTERS 

of  error.'  The  Church  still  hankered  after  a  Covenanted  King,  and 
the  ministers  prayed  for  Charles  till  the  custom  was  declared  illegal. 
Two  of  their  number,  Waugh  and  Knox,  were  long  in  prison  for 
breaking  this  law.'^  Others  evaded  the  statute  by  circumlocutions,  as 
the  Jacobites,  a  century  afterwards,  evaded  similar  orders.  Patrick 
Gillespie  was  one  of  the  few  who  openly  prayed  for  Cromwell,  and 
he  had  his  reward  in  being  appointed  Principal  of  Glasgow  University, 
to  the  chagrin  of  Baillie  and  others. 

Meantime  great  events  had  happened  in  England.  On  20th  April 
1653,  Cromwell  and  the  officers  had,  in  a  high-handed  manner,  dis- 
solved the  Long  Parliament  (truncated  after  Pride's  purge  of  Royalist 
members  in  1648),  and  convened  in  its  place  the  short-lived  Barebones 
Parliament.  The  Cromwellian  party  in  this  Parliament  immediately 
dissolved  it  in  order  to  invest  Cromwell  with  supreme  authority  as 
Cromwell  Lord  Protector.  A  subsequent  instrument  of  government  modified 
Lord" "  *hs  autocratic  nature  of  this  appointment,  and  provided  for  the 
Protector.  establishing  of  a  Parliament  and  Council  of  State.  One  result  of  this 
reformation  was  the  promulgation  of  a  scheme  of  religious  toleration, 
to  all  but  Papists,  which  provided  for  the  establishment  of  Puritanism, 
with  any  of  its  many  forms  of  ecclesiastical  government,  and  for  the 
permission  of  Episcopal  worship  when  performed  in  private.  The 
unbending  Royalists  so  harassed  the  Government  that  ten  major- 
generals  were  appointed  to  keep  order  in  the  provinces.  Neither 
the  first  nor  the  second  Protectorate  Parliament  was  an  unqualified 
success,  and  both  were  dissolved,  the  one  in  January  1655,  the  other 
in  February  1658. 

The  contending  clerics  indicted  their  Assemblies  to  meet  in 
Edinburgh  on  20th  July  1653.  In  St.  Giles'  Church  only  a  thin 
partition  separated  Resolutioners  from  Protesters.  Lilburn  associated 
these  conventions  with  the  Highland  rising  and  asked  an  injunction 
from  Cromwell  to  suppress  them.  That  astute  diplomatist  did  not 
reply,  and  Lilburn  determined  to  act  on  his  own  authority.^     In  the 

•'  Nicoll,  124.  -  Baillie,  iii.  253. 

•  ^  Colville,  Byeiuays—Srotlnndiinthitlic  Roiindheads,  336. 


THE  RULE  OF  THE  IRONSIDES  45 

Resolutioners'  Assembly  Dickson  appositely  expounded  the  differences 
of  Peter  and  Paul,  and  further  exhorted  the  Church  to  unity  and 
peace.  He  was  followed  by  his  successor  in  the  chair,  Douglas,  who 
dilated  upon  schism.  This  preparatory  service  ended  at  four  o'clock. 
The  prayer  of  Dickson  constituting  the  Assembly  was  nearly  finished 
when  the  clatter  of  hoofs  and  the  tramp  of  infantry  were  heard,  and 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Cotterel,  some  officers,  and  a  guard  of  musketeers 
with  lighted  matches  appeared  in  church.  A  loud  voice  with  English 
accent  broke  the  silence.  It  came  from  Cotterel,  who  stood  up  on  Edinburgh 
a  bench  and  said :  '  Gentlemen,  I  am  commanded  to  ask  you  by  jisloWed  by 
what  authority  you  sit  here  :  if  you  have  none  from  the  Parliament,  Coionei 

^    •'  ■'  •  )        T^i       Cotterel,  20th 

Commander-in-chief,  or  Judges,  you  are  to  go  with  me.'  The juiy  1653. 
Moderator,  having  cleared  out  non-members,  replied  :  '  We  sit  here 
by  the  authority  of  Jesus  Christ  and  by  the  law  of  this  land,  whereby 
we  are  authorised  to  keep  General  Assemblies  from  year  to  year, 
according  to  the  several  Acts  of  Parliament,  and  every  Assembly 
meets  by  appointment  of  the  former.'  Cotterel  bade  them  begone, 
'or  else  he  would  make  them  rise  on  other  terms.'  Dickson  craved 
time  to  constitute  the  meeting  and  to  appoint  the  next  Assembly. 
Cotterel  was  peremptory  and  summoned  the  musketeers.  The 
Moderator's  final  prayer  and  protest  was  interrupted  rudely  by  one 
of  the  officers.  They  stood  waiting  with  their  helmets  on.  Out 
between  the  lines  of  soldiers  the  ministers  were  led,  and  were  con- 
ducted through  the  west  gate  over  Bruntsfield  Links,  and  drawn 
up  near  the  spot  where  the  trunk  of  Montrose  lay  buried.  On 
this  spot,  set  apart  for  the  bodies  of  criminals,  the  roll  was 
taken. ^  Baillie,  who  was  there,  describes  the  scene :  '  When  he 
had  led  us  a  myle  without  the  towne,  he  then  declared  what  further 
he  had  in  commission.  That  we  should  not  dare  to  meet  any 
more  above  three  in  number ;  and  that  against  eight  o'clock  to- 
morrow, we  should  depart  the  towne,  under  pain  of  being  guiltie 
of  breaking  the  public  peace.      And   the  day  following,   by  sound 

'  '  An  Account  of  the  late  violence,'  etc.,  Kings  Pamphlets,  E.  708  (23) ;  Lamont,  69  ; 
Scot,  and  Common.,  163. 


46  THE  COVENANTERS 

of  trumpet,  we  were  commanded  off  towne  under  paine  of  present 
imprisonment.  Thus  our  General  Assembly,  the  glory  and  strength 
of  our  Church  upon  earth,  is,  by  your  souldarie,  crushed  and  trod 
under  feet,  without  the  least  provocatione  from  us,  at  this  time, 
either  in  word  or  deed.'  ^  What  made  the  situation  more  vexing  was 
Protest  of  that  the  Protesters  sat  on  a  while  unmolested ;  but  their  meeting  was 
also  dissolved.  And  to  their  credit  they  drew  up  a  protestation 
against  the  unjustifiable  suppression  of  the  Assembly.'  Of  nine 
hundred  parish  ministers,  seven  hundred  and  fifty  were  computed  to 
be  Resolutioners,  and  this  majority  had  now  no  supreme  judicatory. 
This  collapse,  without  a  blow  struck,  and  with  few  regrets  expressed 
in  favour  of  the  Church,  showed  how  very  wearied  the  people  were 
with  the  conflicts  and  intrigues  in  connection  with  religion.  Times 
had  changed  since  the  interference  of  a  foreign  prelate  had  roused 
the  nation  as  one  man. 

The  Remonstrants  made  use  of  their  friendship  with  the  English 
Sectaries  by  appointing  to  vacant  charges  sympathisers  with  both 
interests.  In  some  cases  the  parishioners  resented  this  intrusion. 
Aggressiveness  At  Douglas,  the  Protcstcrs  ordained  Francis  Kidd  on  a  hillside,  the 
Prousters  celebrants  being  protected  from  the  furious  people  by  English 
troopers.  At  Bothkennar,  John  Galbraith  was  deposed,  but  remained 
in  charge.  The  two  opposing  Presbyteries  of  Stirling  prepared  to 
settle  another  pastor.  The  parishioners  nominated  another  Galbraith, 
while  Guthrie's  Presbytery  chose  a  preacher  named  Blair.  When 
the  latter  judicatory  came  to  settle  Blair,  the  parishioners  defended 
the  church  with  missiles  until  the  sheriff  appeared  and  protected  the 
celebrants.^  Nevertheless  the  Remonstrants  at  heart  were  not  favour- 
able to  the  intruded  Republican  Government ;  *  the  Protesters  were 
openly  antagonistic  to  it.  At  the  communion  dispensed  by  Rutherford 
and  Alexander  Moncrieff,  at  Scoonie,  in  June  1652,  all  persons  who 
had  taken  the  Tender,  as  well  as  Englishmen,  were  debarred  from  the 

'  Letters,  iii.  225.  ^  Scot,  and  Common.,  163  ;  Row,  Blair,  308. 

^  Haillie,  iii.  247,  258. 

^  Broghill  to  Cromwell,  26th  February  1655  ;  Act.  Purl.  Scot.,  vi.  ii.  899,  900. 


THE  RULE  OF  THE  IRONSIDES  47 

table.'  While  a  blight  fell  on  the  Moderate  party  the  Protesters 
became  more  enthusiastic  and  tireless  in  ranging  over  the  land, 
resuscitating  the  almost  forgotten  sacraments,  rebuking  sin,  and  re- 
inspiring  evangelical  fervour.  By  their  zeal  this  remnant  held  itself 
together  as  the  nucleus  of  the  Church  whose  rehabilitation  at  the 
Revolution  Settlement  preserved  Presbyterianism  for  Scotland." 

Although  at  this  time  Cromwell  in  England  was  in  a  maze  of  Cromwell's 
religious  difficulties  he  shrewdly  saw  that  'the  root  of  the  matter ' ''""^^' 
was  in  the  Protesting  party,  and,  at  the  suggestion  of  Lilburn,  sent 
for  its  leaders  to  deliberate  on  the  deadlock  and  '  a  way  to  satisfye 
the  godly  in  Scotland.'''  Patrick  Gillespie,  John  Livingstone,  and 
James  Menzies  went,  but  Douglas,  Blair,  and  Guthrie  refused  the 
invitation.^  The  result  of  this  visit  of  the  triumvirate  was  the 
arrangement  of  subsidies  to  the  Universities  of  Glasgow  and  Aberdeen, 
and  the  framing  of  an  ordinance  for  the  government  of  the  Church. 

This  ordinance,  8th  August  1654,  practically  established  a  'Com- 
mission of  Triers '  for  Scotland,  in  the  instruction  of  the  Council  of 
State  to  the  Commissioners  for  visiting  Universities  to  see  that  godly 
presentees,  who  were  capable  preachers,  as  certified  by  four  or  more 
ministers  and  elders  in  each  of  five  districts,  were  settled  in  livinors. 
All  parties  spurned  this  method  of  extinguishing  presbyterial  power 
and  privilege. 

Monck  returned  to  Scotland  to  restore  peace  by  the  sword.  Muncu,  his 
George  Monck,  first  Duke  of  Albemarle  (1608-70),  was  a  Devon- ';^'J"'*^^7'''' 
shire  man,  in  the  prime  of  life,  of  knightly  lineage,  a  daring  soldier 
for  Crown  and  Parliament.  His  loyalty  to  Charles  got  him  two 
years  of  imprisonment  in  the  Tower.  He  became  a  Covenanter  and 
a  devoted  adherent  of  the  Parliamentary  party.  His  success  in  the 
Irish  wars  was  repeated  at  Dunbar.  Cromwell  trusted  him.  His 
manliness  and  moderation  made  him  a  suitable  administrator.  His 
sympathies  were  with  the  Moderates  in  the  Church.*     On  4th  May 

'  Lamont,  51.  -  Burnet,  Hist.,  i.  113;  Lee.  Hisl.,  ii.  376. 

'  Johnston  to  Guthrie,  29th  March  1654  :  Baillie,  iii.  567. 

<  Baillie,  iii.  243,  253.  5  md^  .57^  535. 


48  THE  COVENANTERS 

1654,  Monck  with  pomp  announced  at  the  Cross  of  Edinburgh  the 
establishment  of  the  Protectorate  and  the  assumption  of  Scotland  as 
an  integral  part  of  the  Commonwealth.  Throne,  Parliament  Courts, 
and  other  authorities  were  abolished,  and  new  representative  forms 
of  government  were  to  be  set  up.  He  heralded  a  new  era  of  free 
trade,  proportionate  taxation,  and  national  prosperity.  Malcontents 
from  civil  rule  alone  would  suffer  punishment.  Persons  in  authority 
would  be  responsible  for  rebels  issuing  from  their  estates,  or  presby- 
teries, or  families.  A  reward  of  .^{^200  was  offered  for  Middleton, 
Seaforth,  Kenmure,  and  Dalyell.^  This  conciliatory  policy  did  not 
appeal  to  the  highest  instincts,  but  it  was  popular  and  effective  in 
view  of  the  impoverished  condition  of  the  country,  where  bankrupt 
landlords  became  rebels  out  of  sheer  necessity.  Argyll  was  arrested 
in  London  for  debt.  Despite  his  father's  wishes  Lome  joined  the 
rebels,  now  in  arms  under  Middleton.  Monck  hunted  them  from 
Inverlochy  by  Kintail  to  Inverness,  and  down  to  Blair-Athole.  He  left 
his  mark  on  the  charred  homesteads  of  the  Camerons,  Macdonalds, 
Mackenzies,  and  other  clans,  and  in  retaliation  Middleton  devastated 
the  lands  of  the  Campbells  and  their  allies. 

Still  King  Charles  could  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  land  and  lead 
his  supporters,  giving  as  his  reason  that  they  were  not  agreed  among 
themselves.  He  asked  the  Assembly's  Commission  to  pray  for  him 
and  send  chaplains  to  the  forces."  The  peace  made  with  Holland 
made  these  prayers  belated. 
Dispersion  of  On  iQth  July  Colonel  Morgan  and  the  Parliamentary  troops  came 

xoyais  orces.  .^^^  touch  with  Middletou  at  Dalnaspidal  and  dispersed  the  Royalists 
among  the  hills,  capturing  many,  who  were  sent  to  the  plantations 
and  to  foreign  military  service.  A  skirmish  at  Aberfoyle  and  an 
attack  upon  Campbeltown  by  Kenmure  were  unimportant  incidents 
in  this  risincj.  Before  the  end  of  summer  Glencairn  and  Kenmure 
submitted;  Middleton  fled  to  the  Continent  early  in  1655.  The 
Scots  were  forbidden  the  use  of  arms.  Argyll  loyally  supported 
Monck   in   the   suppression    of  the  insurgents,  and   the  informative 

'  Thurloe,  ii.  261.  -  Scot,  and  Common..,  28,  29,  3:,  198. 


THE  RULE  OF  THE  IRONSIDES  49 

letters  he  then  sent  to  Monck  were  produced  at  the  trial  of  Argyll. 
to  the  dishonour  of  Monck. 

In   1655   Gillespie   and  his   party  received   a   Commission   from  cromweii's 
Cromwell  for  settling  the  troubled  affairs  of  the  Church  on  the  lines  jgttiTr'cHgion. 
set  forth  in  the  Ordinance  of  1654.      In  this  Commission,  Cromwell 
expressed  his  approval  of  a  national  establishment  of  religion.     It 
was  evidently  intended  to  put  the  Church  under  the  charge  of  the 
Protesters,  but  had  a  different  result  in  splitting  up  that  party  over 
the  question   of  the    lawfulness    of  the   Commission,   Wariston    and 
Guthrie  rejecting  it  for  its  Erastian  character.'      In   1655  a  Council 
of   Eight,    under    the    presidency  of   Lord    Broghill    (Roger    Boyle, 
younger  son  of  the  first  Earl  of  Cork,   created  Earl  of  Orrery  after 
the  Restoration,  died   1679),  was  constituted  in  Edinburgh,  and  one 
of  its  good  offices  was  the  persuasion  of  the  Resolutioners  to  accept 
the  substance  of  the  Ordinance  and  to  live  quietly  under  the  Govern- 
ment.    Lord  Broghill  informed  Cromwell  that  he  set  himself  to  win 
the  body  of  the  ministry  to  accept  his  rule,  but  found  the  Wariston 
and  Guthrie  Protesting  party  to  be  like  the  Fifth  IVIonarchy  and  All- 
hallows  men,   impossible    to  conciliate.       Douglas,    Dickson,    Wood, 
Hutchison,  Smith,  and  '  Mr.  Sharpe  of  Fife '  were  more  reasonable 
and  well  disposed.     This  party  was  willing  to  coerce  their  intractable 
brethren  and   pray  for  the    English   Government.      Of    Douglas    he 
wrote  :  '  I  may  truly  say,  he  is  the  leadingest  man  in  all  the  Church 
of  Scotland.'     His  record  of  Sharp  is  noteworthy:   'Mr.   Sharpe  is 
a  man  I  have  made  good  use  of  in  all  this  business,  and  one  who, 
I  thinke,  is  devoted  to  your  service.'"     These  men  were  to  gain  over 
Patrick  Gillespie,  John  Livingstone,  and  the  Moderates  to  their  party 
of  conciliation.     Deposed  pastors  who  had  suffered  for  Malignancy 
and  the  Engagement,  such  as  Ramsay,  Henry  Guthry,  Colville,  and 
others,  were  now  welcomed   back  to  the  ministry.      The  Protesters 
had  only  one  panacea  for  the  troubles — a  fresh  thorough  purgation 


»  Nicoll,  163-6. 

"  IJioghill  to  Cromwell,  ::6th  Feljruary  1655  :  Act.  Pari.  Scof.,  vi.  ii.  goo. 

VOL.  II.  G 


50 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Unpopularity 
of  Presby- 
teriani^m  in 
England. 


Cromwell 

supports 

toleration. 


all  round.     Cromwell  had  marked  the  failure  of  Presbyterianism  to 
establish  itself  on  English  soil. 

In  June  1646,  the  English  Parliament  established  Presbyterianism, 
but  parishes  were  slow  to  appoint  elderships,  and  ministers  were  tardy 
in  assembling  in  'Classes,'  as  the  ministerial  courts  were  called. 
Questions  as  to  discipline  and  excommunication  made  the  system 
unpopular.  On  29th  August  1648,  a  final  ordinance  was  passed, 
authorising  '  triers  '  to  test  the  fitness  of  the  officials  of  the  Church,  so 
that  elderships,  classical  precincts,  or  presbyteries,  and  provincial  and 
national  assemblies  should  be  legally  constituted.  The  toleration 
extended  to  the  sects  rendered  the  scheme  inoperative.'  The  West- 
minster Assembly  debated  the  matter  thoroughly,  and  declared  that 
uniformity  and  toleration  were  incompatible,  and  that  no  platform 
could  peacefully  accommodate  Presbyterians  and  Sectaries.  The 
sword  of  the  New  Model  at  Naseby  pot  a  different  complexion  on 
this  conflict  of  theologians,  and  gave  the  Independents  a  new  status. 
The  sword  gave  a  title  to  the  sects  which  Parliament  had  to  legalise 
in  an  indulgence  for  tender  consciences.  The  Scottish  Covenanters 
opposed  toleration  as  tending  to  schism  and  atheism.  In  the  mean- 
time. King  Charles  agreed  with  the  Scots  in  order  to  gain  influence. 

The  second  Civil  War  ended  in  the  establishment  of  the  principle 
of  toleration.  This  was  formulated  in  the  '  Agreement  of  the  People' 
presented  by  the  officers  to  Parliament  in  January  1649,  but  a 
long  struggle  ensued  before  Parliament  legislated  on  the  subject. 
Cromwell's  own  aim  was  to  unify  Protestantism  throughout  Christen- 
dom under  the  segis  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  he  tried  to  make  his 
dream  substantial  by  promoting  a  secular  policy  which  was  unpopular 
abroad.  His  idea  of  toleration  may  be  gathered  from  his  declaration 
to  the  Irish:  'As  for  the  people,  what  thoughts  in  the  matter  of 
religion  they  have  in  their  own  breasts,  I  cannot  reach ;  but  shall 
think  it  my  duty  if  they  walk  honestly  and  peaceably,  not  to  cause 
them  in  the  least  to  suffer  for  the  same.'^ 

Cromwell's  first  Parliament  took  into  consideration  a  pronounce- 

'  Shaw,  ii.  1-33.  -  Morlcy,  Cromwell,  296. 


THE  RULE  OF  THE  IRONSIDES  51 

merit  on  toleration  embodied  in  the  '  Instrument  of  Government,'  of 
December  1653,  and  failing  to  define  the  limits  of  liberty  of  conscience, 
appointed  a  committee  to  nominate  a  council  of  theologians,  who  were 
to  specify  the  fundamentals  of  religion.  They  duly  reported  their 
finding.  But  it  was  not  till  1657  that  the  second  Cromwellian 
Parliament  resolved  that  the  Scriptures  should  be  the  rule  of  faith, 
and  believers  in  the  Trinity  and  in  the  Scriptures  should  suffer  no 
disability,  unless  they  were  Popish,  prelatic,  profligate,  and  blasphem- 
ing persons.  Cromwell  accepted  these  resolutions ;  so  did  the 
revived  Rump  Parliament  in  May  1659.  The  next  Parliament, 
however,  reverted  to  the  Confession  of  Faith,  and  enacted  that  the 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant  should  be  read  annually  and  hung  up 
in  every  parish  church.^ 

The  Commonwealth  did  not  by  statute  supersede  Presbytery  and  Presbyterian- 
establish  Independency.      The  Classes  simply  disappeared  through  ihroj'gh 
innate  constitutional   weakness.      The  easy,    tolerant,   good-natured  '"Cerent  weak- 

ness  of  system. 

Englishman  did  not  take  kindly  to  the  disciplinary  office  of  elder. 
The  average  layman  then  had  not  the  education  to  make  him  a 
critic,  nor  the  coercive  spirit  to  justify  his  judgments  on  men.  The 
majority  liked  the  old,  easy-going,  non-compulsive  way  they  had 
been  accustomed  to.  There  was  also  an  active  opposition  to  the 
Presbyterians  from  the  Independents,  who  considered  that  they  had 
as  good  a  title  to  worship  in  the  parish  churches  as  the  unwelcome 
Presbyters.  The  inability  of  the  latter  to  enforce  discipline  tended 
to  laxity,  so  that  the  people  were  in  many  places  not  catechised,  and 
had  no  opportunity,  for  long  periods,  of  partaking  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  This  scandal  in  the  State  Church  gave  rise  in  1653  to 
Voluntary  Associations,  who  undertook  to  dispense  the  sacraments 
and  to  revive  decadent  piety.  With  no  middle  ground  between 
Presbytery  and  Independency,  and  hating  the  thrall  of  Puritanism, 
the  English  people  yearned  for  a  truce  between  Church  and  State. 
The  last  General  Assembly  in  England  was  held  in  May  1659.* 

'   liaiUie,  iii.  405  ;  Com.  Jour.,  vii.  662,  862,  1st  March  16C0. 
-  Shaw,  ii.  161  ;  Heath,  439. 


52  THE  COVENANTERS 

At  this  crisis  the  most  active  promoter  of  a  union  between 
■  parties  was  Robert  Blair,  who  with  Durham,  minister  of  Glasgow, 
and  some  brethren  in  Fife,  regretted  the  censures  passed  on  the 
Protesters/  It  was  impossible  to  heal  the  rupture  of  the  parties, 
who  waged  a  pamphlet  war  against  each  other.  The  Resolutioners 
deemed  it  expedient  that  Cromwell  should  have  authoritative  informa- 
tion regarding  Church  affairs,  but  were  unable  to  select  a  suitable 
Advent  of  delegate  to  present  their  case.  At  this  point  James  Sharp,  minister 
1613-^1679.'  '  of  Crail  in  Fife,  was  talked  of  in  this  relation.  His  neighbours. 
Wood  of  St.  Andrews  and  Carmichael  of  Markinch,  suggested  his 
appointment ;  but  Blair,  with  remarkable  insight,  was  unfavourable 
both  to  the  delegate  and  his  mission  to  an  Erastian  ruler.  Sharp 
was  now  (1656)  in  his  forty-third  year.  He  was  born  in  Banff 
Castle,  on  4th  May  16 13,  his  father,  William,  being  factor  to  the 
Earl  of  Findlater,  and  his  mother  being  a  kinswoman  of  the  Earl 
of  Rothes.  His  reputed  connection  with  some  bagpiper  is  a  jest  or 
myth,  like  that  regarding  Montrose,  who  in  his  youth  was  said  to 
have  swallowed  the  devil  in  a  toad.  Sharp  graduated  at  King's 
College,  Aberdeen,  where  he  imbibed  the  tenets  of  the  famous 
Doctors,  and  repudiated  the  Covenant  in  1638.  He  went  to  Oxford, 
and,  it  is  said,  would  have  taken  orders  in  the  English  Church  had 
not  his  health  given  way.  His  contemporaries  accused  him  of  carnal 
frailties  during  his  college  days,  and  even  of  the  murder  of  his  own 
illegitimate  child  ;  but  there  is  no  evidence  to  sustain  the  horrid 
charges.^  He  returned  to  Scotland  and  became  a  professor  of 
philosophy  in  St.  Andrews.  A  sympathiser  with  the  Malignant 
faction,  he  found  a  patron  in  the  Earl  of  Crawford,  who  appointed 
him  to  the  Church  of  Crail,  where  he  began  his  ministry  on  27th 
January  1649.  His  portrait  conveys  the  impression  of  a  man  of  no 
great    mental   vigour  or  manly  character,   but  rather  of  a   cunning 

'  Ro\v,  Blair,  303. 

-  Miscell.  Scot.,  ii.  ('Life  of  Sharp'),  Pref.  v..  Sharp  accused  of  immorality  with  his  sister- 
in-law  ;  p.  19,  with  Isobel  Lindsay  ;  p.  22.  strangles  baby.  Cf  also  pp.  94,  97,  loi.  Eccl. 
Records  (St.  Andrews  and  Cupar,  1641-9S),  Edin.  Abbots.  Club,  p.  89:  '  Isbell  Lyndsay 
spouse  to  John  Wilson  in  St.  Andrews,'  banished  for  reviling  Sharp. 


THE  RULE  OF  THE   IRONSIDES  53 

busybody.  Burnet  declared  that  '  he  had  a  very  small  proportion  of 
learning  and  was  but  an  indifferent  preacher.'^  He  was  ambitious. 
His  idols  were  power,  pelf,  and  persons  of  position.  His  first  cross 
was  laid  on  him  when  the  General  Assembly  refused  to  sanction  his 
transfer  from  Crail  to  Edinburgh — that  Mecca  of  ambitious  com- 
mitteemen and  vain  babblers  of  the  Church."  He  managed  to  keep 
in  touch  with  the  Resolutioners  and  with  the  Executive  Government. 
He  was  sent  a  prisoner  from  Alyth  to  London,  but  through  the 
influence  of  Wariston  he  was  soon  liberated,  and  returned,  loth  April 
1652,  to  take  the  Tender,  and  to  become  a  friend  of  Monck  and  the 
English  judges.^  His  friend.  Lord  Broghill,  considered  Sharp  to  be 
a  suitable  minister  to  accompany  him  tg  London  in  August  1656. 
He  was  then  instructed  by  Dickson,  Douglas,  and  Wood  as  to  what  sharp  sent  as 
he  should  represent  to  Cromwell  regarding  the  National  Church.''  c^o^^l^g^j  ° 
So  early  as  this,  Baillie  describes  Sharp  as  'our  professed  friend.' August  1656. 
Cromwell  was  pleased  with  the  manner  in  which  Sharp  conducted 
his  business,  but  Argyll  advised  him  to  stay  his  judgment  until  he 
heard  his  opponents.  The  adroitness  of  Sharp  drew  from  Cromwell 
the  remark  :  '  That  gentleman  after  the  Scotch  way  ought  to  be 
called  Sharp  of  that  Ilk."'  The  credulous  Resolutioners  hailed  him 
as  'the  great  instrument  of  God,'  sent  to  cross  the  designs  of  the 
Protesters  and  Remonstrants,  especially  of  Wariston,  who  was  a 
member  of  the  Upper  House  in  the  Second  Protectorate  Parliament, 
1656-8."  They  lived  to  change  their  judgment  upon  'that  very 
worthie,  pious,  wise,  and  diligent  young  man,'  and  to  call  their  '  dear 
James'  a  Judas. 

To  nullify  his  specious  pleading  and  to  promote  their  own  formu-  Envoys  of  the 
lated  demands  for  the  appointment  of  committees  to  plant  the  Church  ^'^'^*«^'^'^- 
and    settle  its   quarrels,    especially  by  the    renewal    of  the    Act   of 
Classes,  the  Protesters  also  sent  up  a  spokesman  to  Cromwell.     This 
was  James   Simson,   minister  at  Airth,  already  mixed   up  in  a  vile 

'  Hist.,  i.  114.  -  Peterkin,  Records,  589. 

^  Cal.  Slale  Pap.,  1651-2,  p.  213  ;  A.  Hay,  Diary,  42. 

*  Baillie,  iii.  324,  330,  352,  568  ;  Row,  Blair,  328.  ■•   True  and  hr.partial  Account,  34. 

°  Baillie,  iii.  352  ;  Row,  Blair,  336. 


54 


THE  COVENANTERS 


A  war  of 
pamphlets. 


Waribton 
becomes  a 
Cromwellian. 


scandal  and  deposed  by  the  Assembly.'  He  was  joined  by  powerful 
advocates  in  Guthrie  and  Gillespie,  and  three  elders,  Wariston, 
Inglestoun,  and  Greenhead,  who  brought  with  them  an  incisive 
indictment  of  their  ecclesiastical  persecutors.  At  the  same  time  the 
partisans  Cant,  Rutherford,  and  Trail,  wrote  to  Cromwell  explain- 
ing the  perplexing  situation.  Cromwell  summoned  the  parties  to  a 
debate,  and  with  a  cynical  shrewdness  appointed  a  council  of  twelve 
to  listen  to  the  wrangle,  in  which  Sharp  had  an  opportunity  of  deny- 
ing plain  facts.  In  the  spirit  of  Felix,  Cromwell  said  he  would  hear 
them  at  a  more  convenient  season,  and  bade  them  go  home  and  live 
in  peace.  That  they  would  not  do.  The  Protesters  so  far  prevailed 
as  to  get  the  Act  of  Classes  renewed,  while  Sharp  had  compensation 
in  being  led  to  understand  that  this  statute  would  remain  a  dead 
letter.  The  Resolutioners  in  1658,  in  a  Declaration,  accused  the 
Protesters  of  subverting  the  ecclesiastical  government,  and  drew 
forth  a  pungent  reply  from  the  pen  of  James  Guthrie,  it  is  said, 
entitled  Protesters  no  Subverters,  and  Presbytery  no  Papacy.  A  fresh 
war  of  pamphlets  began.  Rutherford  wrote  A  Survey  of  the  Survey 
of  that  Stimme  of  Church  Discipline,  penned  by  Mr.  Thomas  Hooker^ 
The  preface  accused  the  Resolutioners  of  being  worse  persecutors 
than  the  bishops,  and  of  being  soul-murdering  ministers  who 
encouraged  the  vicious  and  ignorant.^  In  August,  Sharp  wrote  to 
his  correspondent  in  London,  Patrick  Drummond,  declaring  that  '  no 
peace  can  be  had  with  these  men  [Remonstrants]  but  upon  their  own 
termes,  how  destructive  soever  to  truth  and  order.' ^  Shortly  after- 
wards we  find  Sharp  urging  the  prosecution  of  his  opponents. 

One  unexpected  result  of  the  conference  was  the  confirmation  of 
the  allegiance  of  Wariston  to  the  Protector.  Wariston  had  seen  his 
country  flourishing  under  the  Ironsides,  and  realised  that  Cromwell 
was  a  friend  to  religion  and  education.  For  his  patriotism  he  had 
lost  office,  and  now  with  his  large  family  was  poverty-stricken.  He 
reaccepted   his   former   post  of  Lord   Clerk   Register,  and  together 


'   Baillie,  iii.  353,  573. 
*  Baillie,  iii.  362,  375. 


-  London,  i6;S. 
<  Add.  MSS.,  ?3i 


13,  f.  66. 


THE  RULE  OF  THE   IRONSIDES  55 

with  Cassillis  and  Sir  William  Lockhart,  was  elevated  to  Cromwell's 
House  of  Peers,  wherein  he  continued  to  sit  during  the  regime  of 
Richard  Cromwell.  He  also  took  a  share  in  the  new  administration 
which  succeeded  Richard's  rule,  until  he  was  dispossessed  of  his 
office  in  1659. 

On  3rd  September  1658,  his  day  of  fate,  Oliver  Cromwell,  weary  Death  of 
of  the  interminable  strife  of  political  and  religious  parties,  found  3,,]  September 
rest,  and  died  expressing  his  confidence  in  these  words :  '  I  am  a  con-  '^^S- 
queror  and  more  than  a  conqueror  through  Christ  that  strengtheneth 
me,'  and  praying  earnestly  for  the  people  for  whom  he  had  fought. 
He  was  unquestionably  the  greatest  Briton  of  his  age.  His  Celtic 
blood  determined  his  ideas  in  a  religious  mould.  The  secret  of  his 
power  lay  in  his  conviction  that  he  was  a  humble  instrument  pre- 
destined to  act  for  his  country's  welfare,  under  the  guidance  of  the 
Divine  hand.  It  moved  him  to  become  the  representative  and 
defender  of  Protestantism  in  Europe,  in  opposition  to  its  Catholic 
rulers.  In  this  action  he  was  ably  supported  by  the  poet  Milton. 
He  strove  to  confer  unity  and  peace  on  the  British  Empire,  and  if 
he  followed  the  patterns  of  the  Old  Testament  rather  than  the  more 
gentle  teachings  of  the  New,  he  always  at  least  sought  a  warrant  for 
his  actions  in  The  Souldiers  Pocket  Bible,  which  every  Ironside  carried 
in  his  holster.* 

If  Cromwell  achieved  nothing  more  than  the  laying  the 
foundations  of  that  religious  liberty  which  was  re-established  at  the 
Revolution  in  1688,  he  deserves  to  be  held  in  esteem  by  all  lovers  of 
true  religious  and  political  freedom,  such  as  Britain  enjoys  to-day. 
His  character  and  place  in  British  politics  are  well  described  by  the 
late  Principal  Tulloch  :  '  Cromwell  then  was  no  hypocrite  and  no  mere 
enthusiast.  He  was  simply  the  greatest  Englishman  of  his  time  :  the 
most  powerful,  if  not  the  most  perfect  expression  of  its  religious  spirit, 
and  the  master-genius  of  its  military  and  political  necessities.' " 

'  '  The  Souldiers  Pocket  Bible  containing  the  most  {if  not  all)  those  places  contained  in 
holy  Scripture  ivhick  doe  shoiu  the  qualifications  0/  his  inver  man  that  is  a  fit  souldicr  to  fight 
the  Lord's  Battels  both  before  the  fight,  in  the  fight,  and  after  the  fight,  etc.     London,  1643.' 

'  English  Puritanism  and  its  Leaders,  1 60. 


56  THE  COVENANTERS 

Accession  of  Oti    the   acccssion   of   Richard   Cromwell,   a    Parliament   purged 

^yg'j/'^Jg  '""'' of  Royalists  assembled  in  January  1659,  and  was  in  May  forced  to 
resign  along  with  Richard.'  The  military  faction  invited  the  Rump 
to  assume  session  in  May,  but  finding  it  too  severe  on  their  order, 
turned  it  out  of  power  again.  The  attempt  of  the  military  to  govern 
was  a  fiasco,  and,  finding  affairs  lapsing  into  chaos,  they  restored  the 
Rump  to  Westminster  on  26th  December  1659.  During  summer, 
Sharp  had  been  making  himself  so  officious  in  London,  that  the 
Government  ordered  him  to  cease  meddling  in  public  affairs,  to  return 
to  Scotland,  and  'to  keep  within  the  compass  of  his  own  calling."- 
Sharp  was  not  to  be  suppressed.  The  influence  of  Wariston, 
opponent  of  the  toleration  proposed  to  be  granted  to  all  kinds  of 
schismatics,  and  soon  to  be  advanced  to  be  President  of  the  Committee 
of  Safety,  was  to  be  short-lived. 
Monckopposes  General  Monck  was  taking  a  lively  interest  in  all  the  perplexing 
moves  in  England.  The  exiled  King  had  been  in  communication 
with  Monck,  but  had  failed  to  break  down  the  gallant  soldier's 
allegiance  to  the  Cromwells.  Monck,  however,  after  the  death  of 
Richard  Cromwell,  and  the  usurpation  of  the  officers  in  barring  out 
the  Rump,  felt  himself  called  upon  to  interpose  and  redeem  the 
country  from  anarchy.'  The  sequel  seems  to  indicate  that  he  had  a 
secret  aim  which  it  was  not  opportune  to  divulge  to  any  one.  He 
was  the  most  reserved  man  living.  He  convened  his  officers  in  the 
historic  church  of  Greyfriars  in  Edinburgh  and  announced  his 
opposition  to  the  English  military  party,  and  called  for  those  willing 
to  join  him  to  'make  the  military  power  subservient  to  the  civil.' 
All  offered  him  their  swords.  He  next  secured  the  Cromwellian 
citadels  and  a  loyal  army.  He  issued  declarations,  which  Sharp 
helped  him  to  frame,  wherein  he  announced  that  he  stood  for  popular 
liberties  and  the  freedom  of  Parliament. 

'   iJakcr,  ChioH.,  636  ct  seq. 

'  29th  June  1659  :  Add.  AfSS.,  231 13,  f.  6g.  '  1659,  Feb.  7.  Mr.  James  Sharpe,  Mr.  of 
Cvaill,  tooke  journey  from  Edinboroughe  to  London  sent  by  the  ministrie  for  the  public 
resolutions  to  withstand  the  actings  of  tlie  protesters'  :  Lamont,  C/iroit.,  141. 

'  Baker,  Chron.,  651,  663  ;  Heath,  Chroti.,  430  cl  seq. ;  Row,  Blair,  339. 


THE  RULE  OF  THE  IRONSIDES  57 

On   New  Year's   Day    1660,    Monck    crossed  the   Borders,   andMonckat 

Westminster* 

marched  with  six  thousand  men  on  London,  which  he  reached  on 
3rd  February.  He  boldly  walked  between  files  of  soldiers  into  West- 
minster, and  saw  the  Presbyterian  members  reseated  who  had  been 
excluded  by  Pride.  Thus  obtaining  the  desired  majority,  Monck 
arranged  for  an  early  dissolution  and  for  an  appeal  to  the  country 
for  the  election  of  a  free  Parliament.  On  the  rising  of  the  Long 
Parliament  on  i6th  March,  the  first  stage  in  the  restoration  of 
monarchy  began. ^  The  Presbyterian  party  made  the  best  use  of  the 
time  at  their  disposal  to  have  the  still  unauthorised  Confession  of 
Faith  legalised.  A  committee  was  appointed  to  consider  it,  and  two  Confession 
days  later  it  was  agreed  to,  with  the  exception  of  chapters  thirty  and  °  ,^5^^ 
thirty-one,  being  finally  placed  in  the  Statute  Book  on  5th  March  1660. 
1660.^  This  was  the  more  readily  agreed  to  since  the  Parliament 
men  considered  the  Confession  to  be  a  simple  corollary  to  the  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant.  The  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  was  also 
ordered  to  be  reprinted,  read  annually  in  all  churches,  and  hung 
up  in  Parliament  House.  This  was  the  expiring  effort,  at  this  crisis, 
of  ill-fated  Presbytery  in  England.  The  Restoration  of  the  King 
soon  rendered  these  enactments  inoperative.  By  agreeing  to  a 
dissolution  the  Covenanters  threw  away  the  only  chance  they  had 
of  reviving  their  unpopular  cause  in  monarchical  England.  The 
elections  went  for  the  Crown  and  King. 

Monck,  by  his  urbanity,  had  so  ingratiated  himself  with  the  Monck  and 
Moderate  party  in  the  Church  of  Scotland,  that  their  good  wishes  council!  ^ 
and  prayers  followed  him  across  the  Borders.  A  few  days  after  his 
departure,  David  Dickson  and  Robert  Douglas  requested  Monck  to 
permit  James  Sharp  to  accompany  him  and  keep  him  informed  of 
ecclesiastical  affairs.  But  Monck,  who  assured  his  correspondents 
that  the  welfare  of  the  Church  was  the  object  of  his  solicitude,  had 
already  invited  Sharp  to  London  on  a  mission  which  was  to  be 
mentioned  to   none   but    Douglas.^     Thus  encouraged,  the   Resolu- 

'  Heath,  439  ;  Baker,  677.  ^  Coin.  Jour.,  vii.  S55,  862  ;  Whitelocke,  iv.  401. 

2  Wodrow,  i.  4  et  seq.  ;  Row,  Blair,  344  ;  Correspondence  of  Mr.  James  Sharp  with  Mr. 

VOL.  II.  H 


58  THE  COVENANTERS 

tioners  met  in  Edinburgh  on  6th  February,  and  drafted  instructions 
to  their  envoy,  who  was  to  advocate  : — 

(i)  That  the  Church  was  to  be  guaranteed  in  her  freedoms, 
privileges,  and  legal  judicatories. 

(2)  That  lax  toleration  productive  of  sin  and  error  should  be 
remedied. 

(3)  That  the  malversation  of  vacant  stipends  should  cease. 

(4)  That  ministers  should  enter  into  enjoyment  of  their  stipends 
and  benefices  by  the  Church's  Act  of  Admission. 

This  memorandum  was  subscribed  by  Dickson,  Douglas,  Wood, 
Smith,  Hutchison,  and  the  Clerk  of  Assembly,  Andrew  Ker.'  The 
Resolutioners  also  put  themselves  into  touch  with  the  Presbyterian 
leaders  in  England. 

Monck  welcomed  'Mr.  Sharp'  .  .  .  '  his  good  friend,'  on  13th 
February.  Edward  Calamy  and  other  nonconformists  also  welcomed 
him  to  London.  Monck  soon  gave  the  Scots  ministers  to  under- 
stand that  '  it  shall  be  his  care  that  the  Gospel  ordinances  and 
privileges  of  God's  people  may  be  established  both  here  and  there.' 
This  equivocal  language  gave  rise  to  a  vision  of  Presbytery,  restored, 
imperialised,  glorified,  by  their  new  Joshua— '  called  of  God  in  a 
Monck  prefers  Strait.'  But  when  Monck,  probably  at  the  suggestion  of  Sharp, 
isiirnof  r'igki"'  although  Sharp  disclaimed  the  idea,  reinstated  the  secluded  members 
of  Parliament  in  order  to  outvote  the  Rump,  he  plainly  declared  for 
'Presbyterian  government  not  rigid,'  a  differentiation  which  some- 
what blurred  the  vision  of  Douglas  and  the  other  restorers  of  Presby- 
tery then  allied  to  Monck.  These  enthusiasts  failed  to  comprehend 
wherein  the  rigid  nature  of  Presbyterianism  should  make  it  unpopular 
and  undesirable,  and  wrote  Sharp  to  this  effect.  Sharp  and  Monck 
understood  each  other.  Reading  between  the  lines,  and  with  the 
light  thrown  from  subsequent  events,  one  cannot  fail  to  perceive  that 
Sharp  was  early  cognisant  of  the  hatching  of  a  policy  which  would 
take  his  co-presbyters  by  surprise.     What  other  could  it  be  than  the 

Robert  Douglas,  David  Dickson,  etc.,  in  the  year  i66o,  in  Glasgow  University  Library.     Press 
mark,  BE.  8,  d.  18.  »  Wodrow,  i.  5. 


THE  RULE  OF  THE  IRONSIDES  59 

entire  discarding  of  their  '  rigid '  religious  system  ?  However,  it  is 
difficult  to  determine  the  exact  date  on  which  Sharp  abandoned  the 
idea,  if  he  ever  cherished  it,  that  a  King  pledged  to  the  Covenant  was 
the  only  panacea  for  the  national  distemper.  His  constant  assevera- 
tions that  he  was  a  genuine  Presbyter,  and  that  Lauderdale  was  no 
Episcopalian,  ill  harmonise  with  the  agility  he  soon  afterwards  dis- 
played in  leaping  into  prelatic  place  and  power.  In  his  long  corre- 
spondence with  Douglas,  Sharp  gave  a  partial  and  prejudiced  account 
of  current  affairs  in  the  Capital,  always  contriving  to  leave  out,  as  if 
unknown  or  unimportant,  those  facts  which  were  indicators  of  the 
hidden  movements  of  the  friends  of  Episcopacy  and  the  exiled  King. 
His  written  memoranda  are  equivocal  and  difficult  to  interpret. 

Sharp  reported  that  it  was   hinted    that  if   the    Parliament    rose 
without  securing  religion,   then   '  the  King  would  come  in  without 
terms,'  that  moderate  Episcopalians  were  coming  to  the  front,  and 
the  populace  was  demanding  the  return  of  the  King.     In  these  circum- 
stances Sharp  thought  that  some   of  the  Scots  prisoners,  who  had 
been  released  on  the  advent  of  Monck,  such  as  Crawford  and  Lauder- 
dale, should  be  retained  in  London  as  representatives  of  Scotland. 
Monck  had  not  yet  shown  his  hand.      Sharp  endeavoured   to  work 
Douglas  into  a  state  of  nervousness  by  informing  him  that  the  author- 
■  ities  reckoned  the  Resolutioners  also  to  be  republican  and  disloyal, 
and    that    Douglas's    republished   sermon,    delivered   at    the   Scone 
coronation,  was    being    received  with    disfavour.      Douglas   and    his 
associates  wished  to  send  special  delegates  to  Monck  and  the  Parlia- 
ment to  confer  on  the  crisis.     Sharp  then  desired  to  be  recalled,  but,  sharp's  nego- 
in  a  subsequent  letter,  5th  April,  he  reported  that  Monck  was  averse  J.'^'^j^J™^ ^""^ 
to  Commissioners  being  sent — Lauderdale  and  the  emancipated  Scots, 
in  Monck's  opinion,  being  able  enough  advocates  of  the  Cause.     He 
further  mentioned    Monck's   distrust   of  the    Remonstrants,  and   his 
promise,  '  if  we  be  quiet,  our  business  would  be  done  to  our  mind ' ; 
and,  what  staggered  Douglas  and  his  friends,  Monck's  avowal  that 
none  but  Sharp  would  gain  his  confidence.     To  further  hoodwink 
these    simple    believers,    Sharp    narrated    how   a    trusty    party    of 


6o  THE  COVENANTERS 

Presbyterian  clergy,  with  Lauderdale  and   himself,  met  and  came  to 
an  agreement  as  to  the  Restoration  of  the  King  on  Covenant  lines.^ 
As  a  correspondent,  Sharp  seemed  to  be  quite  transparent  and  honest, 
as  Mr.  Andrew  Lang  would  have  us  believe."     But  Sharp  never  told 
the  half  of  what  he  knew,  and  the  other  half  he  couched  in  oracular 
terms.     After  mentioning  how  Monck  would  not  let  him  depart,  how 
the  King  knew  every  move  and  Scotland's  affection,  how  the  King  was 
on  the  eve  of  returning,  to  the  joy  of  Presbyterians,  and  how  the  very 
Episcopalians  were  humbly  seeking  an  accommodation  from  the  Pres- 
byterians,  Sharp  thus  sums  up  the  matter  (7th  April)  :  '  The  Lord 
having  opened  a  fair  door  of  hope,  we  may  look  for  a  settlement  upon 
the  grounds  of  the  Covenant,  and  thereby  a  foundation  laid  for  security 
against  the  prelatic  and  fanatic  assaults  ;  but  I  am  dubious  if  this  shall 
be  the  result  of  the  agitations  now  on  foot.'     The  sly  diplomatist  did 
not  inform  his  masters  what  he  expected  and  was  working  for.     He 
adjured  them  to  make  no  approach  to  the  King  till  the  King  came, 
warned  them  against  Middleton's  design,  and  blamed  Murray's  mission 
to  the  King.    To  throw  them  off  the  true  scent  he  confessed  by  the  way  : 
'  I  smell  that  moderate  episcopacy  is  the  fairest  accommodation,  which 
moderate  men  who  wish  well  to  religion  expect  ...  we  (the  Scots) 
shall  be  left  to  the  King,  which  is  best  for  us.'  ^     The  Resolutioners 
realising  the  peril,  the  more  that  they  now  knew  how  tired  of  rigid 
Presbytery  the  youth  of  Scotland  were,   let  Sharp  understand   that 
Episcopacy  was  the  prelude  to  prelatic  tyranny,  and  that  if  the  King 
would   not  accept  their  conditions  they  undeterred  would   maintain 
their  Covenanted  rights. 
Triumph  of  All  this  time  Charles  and  Chancellor  Hyde  were  exerting  them- 

Hyde's  selves,  bv  communicatino-  with  sympathisers  in  England,  to  create  a 

diplomacy.  •'  &  /       r  o 

public  feeling  in  favour  of  the  Restoration,  and  in  this  they  succeeded 
so  well  that,  before  the  Convention  Parliament  met  on  25th  April, 
the  King  had  formulated  his  terms  of  settlement.  On  4th  April  he 
signed  the  Declaration  of  Breda,  wherein  he  offered  a  general  pardon 
to  all  except  to  those  whom  Parliament  might  exempt,  promised  to 

»  Wodrow,  i.  18.  ^  Hist.  Scot.,  iii.  284.  '  Wodrow,  i.  20. 


THE  RULE  OF  THE  IRONSIDES  6i 

allow  Parliament  to  settle  possible  disputes  over  confiscated  estates, 
and,  in  a  word,  invited  Parliament  to  specify  the  terms  of  his  return 
to  the  Throne.  On  receipt  of  this  document  on  May-day,  Parliament 
resolved  that,  '  according  to  the  ancient  and  fundamental  laws  of  the 
kingdom,  the  government  is,  and  ought  to  be,  by  Kings,  Lords,  and 
Commons.'  As  far  as  England  was  concerned  the  Puritan  Revolution 
was  at  an  end.     The  faithful  Hyde  at  length  had  triumphed. 

Sharp  had  no  little  share  in  bringing  about  this  consummation,  sharp's  share 
Both  Monck  and  Douglas,  and,  according  to  Blair,  the  ministers  jn  Jj'^*^  ^"'°'^" 
London  also,  requested  him  to  go  and  interview  the  King  in  exile. 
Before  Douglas  had  an  opportunity  to  send  Sharp  fresh  instructions 
on  that  point,  Sharp  had  assumed  the  function  of  a  legate  and  crossed 
the  Channel  to  negotiate  for  the  Church,  and  in  its  name.  Sharp  must 
have  been  sure  of  his  ground  before  he  took  such  an  unwarrantable 
liberty.  Since  the  release  of  the  Scots  nobles  Charles  had  been  in 
communication  with  them,  writing  to  Lauderdale  '  as  entirely  my 
owne,'  as  his  royal  father  had  done  twenty-one  years  before,  con- 
gratulating him  on  his  release  from  prison,  and  also  trusting  him 
to  raise  a  Royalist  party.  Sharp  was  in  their  secrets.  That  rake, 
Rothes,  owned  him  as  '  our  caynd,  honist,  Sherp  Frend '  who  among 
other  ministers  was  '  not  to  be  compared  uithe.'  ^  Lauderdale,  there- 
fore, entrusted  his  reply  to  his  Sovereign  to  Sharp,  therein  informing 
the  King  that  '  God  hath  made  him  [Sharp]  as  happy  ane  instrument 
in  your  Service  all  along  as  any  I  know  of  his  country.  .  .  .  Nor  need 
I  say  anything  by  so  knowing  a  bearer,  who  is  employed  by  him 
[Monck]  who  under  God  hath  done  this  worke  to  give  you  a  full 
account  of  those  great  transactions  which  layd  the  foundacion  of  this 
happiness  we  are  now  I  hope  so  neir.'  -  In  fine,  Sharp  was  a  secret 
envoy  for  Monck.  The  Earl  of  Glencairn  went  even  further,  accord- 
ing to  Burnet,  and  recommended  Sharp  to  Hyde  '  as  the  only  person 
capable  to  manage  the  design  of  setting  up  Episcopacy  in  Scotland.'^ 

'  Airy,  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  lo. 

'  Additional  MS S.,  231 13,  fol.  100  ;  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  24. 

'  Hist.,  i.  165  ;  Wodrow,  i.  28. 


62  THE  COVENANTERS 

Monck,  a  Monck  was  too  wary  to  trust  himself  to  a  proved  knave  like 

plotter.  Sharp,  and  employed  his  own  cousin,  Sir  John  Grenville,  to  convey 

his  message  to  the  King,  verbatim,  after  Monck  had  repeated  it 
several  times  in  the  hearing  of  Grenville.  His  advice  was  embodied 
in  the  Declaration  of  Breda.  While  on  his  way  to  Breda  Sharp  wrote 
to  his  friend  Wood,  cryptic,  equivocal,  and  lugubrious  letters  confessing 
how  he  was  passing  through  distractions  and  a  toilsome  life.^  He 
longed  to  be  home.  He  had  five  interviews  with  the  King,  and, 
according  to  Douglas,  he  utilised  these  to  prove  that  '  he  was  a  great 
Resoiutioners  enemy  to  the  Presbyterian  interest.'"  On  that  very  day  on  which 
thrKtHg."'^  Sharp  had  his  first  interview  with  Charles,  8th  May,  Douglas  and  the 
brethren  in  Edinburgh  penned  a  petition  to  the  King,  in  which  they 
rejoiced  at  his  proposed  restoration,  and  urging  him  not  to  repent  of 
taking  the  Covenant  and  its  pledge  to  maintain  the  Church.  Douglas 
insisted  on  Sharp  telling  the  King  that  Scotland  was  pledged  to  the 
Establishment,  and  that  only  '  naughty  men '  desired  toleration.  A 
few  days  after  this,  in  a  hyper-excited  state  of  joy,  they  wrote  to 
Charles  'as  the  man  of  God's  right  hand,'  congratulating  him  on  his 
recent  profession  of  adherence  to  the  Reformed  Faith  and  on  his 
moderation.  In  a  letter  from  Brussels,  loth  April,  Charles  professed 
this  adherence,  and  vindicated  himself  from  the  charge  of  leading  a 
vicious  life.^  This  letter,  transmitted  by  Rothes,  was  burked  by 
Sharp,  who  treacherously  had  effected  his  purpose  before  his  orders 
reached  him.  In  his  account  of  his  mission.  Sharp  stated  with 
verbosity  and  vagueness  that  '  he  found  his  Majesty  resolved  to 
restore  the  kingdom  to  its  former  civil  liberties,  and  to  preserve  the 
settled  government  of  our  church ' ;  and  that  the  King  refrained  from 
prosecuting  uniformity,  as  it  '  would  be  a  most  disgustful  employment 
and  successless,'  since  he  knew  that  '  there  was  no  English  party  for 
uniformity.''  Charles,  he  wrote,  was  much  improved  by  his  afflictions. 
To  these  precisians  this  counted  for  sanctity.  If  his  spiritual  con- 
dition needed  an  illustration,  it  was  afforded  by  Mr.  Case,  one  of  the 

»  Add.  MSS.,  231 13,  fol.  103.  2  Wodrow,  i.  28. 

*  Wodrow  MSS.,  xxxii.  5.  ■•  Wodrow,  i.  ^o. 


THE  RULE  OF  THE   IRONSIDES  63 

deputation  of  ministers  from  London  who  also  visited  Charles.  He 
declared  that  he  was  taken  where  he  might,  by  eavesdropping,  hear 
the  royal  saint  at  his  devotions.  He  heard  him  groaning  and  sayinor : 
'  Lord,  since  thou  art  pleased  to  restore  me  to  the  throne  of  my 
ancestors,  grant  me  a  heart  constant  in  the  exercise  and  protection 
of  thy  true  Protestant  religion.'  This  trick  of  a  scarcely  disguised 
Papist  was  worse  than  the  travesty  of  religion  witnessed  at  Scone. 


64  THE  COVENANTERS 


CHAPTER     XX 

THE    RESTORATION 

Charles,  exalted  from  beggary  to  kingship,  left  Holland  amid 
demonstrations  of  joy,  and  landed  at  Dover  on  25th  May  1660. 
There  the  jubilant  ministers  proffered  him  a  clasped  Bible  ;  victorious 
Monck  as  appropriately  offered  him  his  sword.  His  progress  towards 
and  entry  into  London  resembled  a  Roman  triumph.  Indeed,  Evelyn 
declared  it  was  like  the  return  of  the  Jews  from  Babylon.  He 
entered  the  Capital  on  29th  May — his  thirtieth  birthday.  That  night, 
when  the  jubilation  and  racket  had  ceased,  and  the  godly  were  in 
prayer  bearing  up  their  Covenanted  Monarch  at  the  Throne  of  Grace, 
he  first  made  an  oblation  of  thanks  to  God  in  the  presence-chamber 
before  seeking  carnal  repose  within  the  arms  of  the  beautiful  adulteress, 
Barbara  Villiers.^  He  thus  early  inaugurated  England's  worst  era  of 
lust  and  falsehoods. 

On  realising  the  Restoration  of  the  King,  the  people  became 
frantic  with  joy,  and  soon  their  hilarity  degenerated  into  ribaldry 
amid  scenes  of  drunkenness  and  immorality." 
Popular  joy  at  In  Edinburgh  a  day  of  thanksgiving — 19th  June — was  appointed, 
the  Restora-  ^^^  Restoration  Day  was  observed  with  sermons,  noises  hallowed 
and  unhallowed,  feasting,  and  strong  drink.  A  farce  in  fireworks  was 
presented  on  the  Castle  Hill,  and  redoubtable  Cromwell  was  depicted 
being  pursued  by  the  Devil  till  both  were  blown  up,  to  the  merriment 
of  the  crowds.' 

Later,   on   Coronation   Day,   the  otherwise  staid   magistrates   of 
Edinburgh  converted  the  area  round  the  Cross  into  a  bacchanalian 

*  Kirkton,  61.     She  bore  six  children  to  Charles  :  Burnet,  i.  168  .and  note  (Airy's  edit.)- 
'  Burnet,  i.  i66  ;  Clarendon,  Con/.,  36-8.  ^  Nicoll,  294. 


tion. 


John,  first  Karl  of  Traquair 


John,  sixth  Earl  of  Rolhes 


Sir  George  McKenzie  of  Rosehaugh 


Archibald,    Marquis  of  Argyll 


General  Tiiomas  Dal)ell 


Archbishop  Laud  Bishop  Leighton 

ROYALIST  AXD  COVENANTING   LEADERS 


THE  RESTORATION  65 

paradise,  in  which  Bacchus,  Silenus,  and  other  bibulous  divinities  and 
wanton  goddesses  held  court  and  revel,  and  the  magistrates  acted  like 
coryphees  in  this  fantastic  vineyard.  The  mad  orgy  was  prolonged 
until  the  citizens  became  'not  only  drunk  but  frantic,'  and  worse.^ 

As  vultures  swoop  on  a  carcase,  the  needy  Scots  nobility  and 
hungry  unemployed  soldiers  of  fortune  made  for  London  to  welcome 
Charles,  and  to  present  petitions  asking  for  the  removal  of  the 
English  garrison,  the  restoration  of  forfeited  estates,  the  resuscitation 
of  privileges,  and  patronage  in  view  of  other  attainders.^ 

At  Crawford's  levee  Charles  gave  them  a  pleasant  reception. 
Fortune  now  smiled  on  the  Engagers,  since  the  other  extreme  parties 
in  the  State— Montrosians  and  Argyllians — were  defunct.  Sharp,  too, 
remained  in  London  negotiating,  as  he  would  make  his  colleagues 
believe.  Burton,  I  think,  rightly  interpreted  the  intentions  of  the 
new  authorities  when  he  wrote  :  '  While  all  these  things  were  written, 
Sharp  was  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  and  virtually  Primate  of 
Scotland.  It  was  believed,  indeed  [he  should  have  added  "soon 
afterwards  "],  that  the  bargain  was  struck  at  once  when  he  arrived  at 
Breda.'*  On  2nd  June,  the  Primate-elect  wrote  to  Douglas  that  insharppUys 
London  he  found  '  the  presbyterian  cause  wholly  given  up  and  lost,'  tioners  false 
while  the  leaders  of  that  party  were  willing  to  accept  a  modified  J""«  '^^• 
Episcopacy  after  Ussher's  model,  with  an  amended  liturgy  and 
curtailed  ceremonies.''  'The  cassock  men  swarm  here,'  he  averred. 
He  continued  discouraging  the  sending  up  of  more  delegates, 
Douglas  excepted — he  had  hopes  of  Douglas  apostatising — on  the 
ground  that  it  would  'give  suspicion  of  driving  a  disobliging  design.' 
He  disclaimed  any  personal  manoeuvre.  Douglas  and  his  friends, 
instead  of  falling  into  the  net,  became  fixed  in  their  resolutions,  and 

'  Edinburgh's  Joy  for  His  Majesties  Coronation  in  England^  1661  ;  Kirkton,  65  ;  Crook- 
shanks,  81. 

"'  Kirkton,  66  ;  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  32-3.  '  Hist.,  vii.  134. 

■*  Hallam,  Const.  Hist.,  ii.  319  :  'This  consisted,  first,  in  the  appointment  of  a  suffragan 
bishop  for  each  rural  deanery,  holding  a  monthly  Synod  of  the  presbyters  within  his  district  ; 
and,  secondly,  in  an  annual  diocesan  Synod  of  suffragans  and  representatives  of  the 
presbyters,  under  the  presidency  of  Uie  bishop,  and  deciding  upon  all  matters  before  them  by 
a  plurality  of  suffrages.' 

VOL.  II.  I 


66  THE  COVENANTERS 

more  emphatically  advised  him  to  oppose  the  defections,  prelacy,  and 
the  liturgy.  It  is  not  likely  that  Sharp  repeated  these  instructions. 
When  Douglas  was  bent  on  coming  south,  Sharp  as  firmly  and 
plausibly  discountenanced  the  proposed  advocacy,  declaring  that  the 
King  was  against  it,  since  he  was  pledged  to  Presbytery  already,  and 
their  advent  would  prejudice  the  cause.  By  these  concoctions  he 
kept  them  in  their  fool's  paradise.  His  tactics  were  clever  but  dis- 
honourable. In  the  middle  of  June  he  writes  :  '  Discerning  men  see 
that  the  gale  is  like  to  blow  for  the  prelatic  party,  and  those  who  are 
sober  will  yield  to  a  liturgy  and  moderate  episcopacy  which  they 
phrase  to  be  effectual  presbytery."  This  was  a  specious  fly  well  cast. 
This  equation  of  '  effectual  presbytery '  explains  the  frequent  boast  of 
Sharp  after  he  came  to  be  suspected,  that  he  '  had  done  more  for  the 
interest  of  presbyterian  government  than  any  minister  who  can  accuse 
me.'^  The  peculiarity  of  Sharp's  letters  is  that,  while  prolix,  they  do 
not  contain,  except  in  his  paraphrase,  the  substantial  communications 
which  he  must  have  been  receiving  from  others.  On  19th  June, 
when  the  Scottish  deputation  was  imminent,  he  wrote  that  the  King 
was  about  to  grant  all  their  demands — their  wildest  dream — and  with 
the  royal  letter  he  would  come  home.  It  was  a  mean  trick  to  hold 
back  the  deputies.  While  trying  to  make  his  brethren  discard  the 
chimera  of  uniformity,  be  it  said  to  his  credit,  he  declared,  '  If  we 
knew  how  little  our  interests  are  regarded  by  the  most  part  here,  we 
would  not  much  concern  ourselves  in  theirs.'  It  was  probably  on 
this  principle  that  Sharp,  while  narrating  the  various  moves  for  the 
restoration  of  prelacy  and  moderate  Episcopacy,  and  even  the  fact 
that  the  Royalists  attributed  the  King's  misfortunes  to  his  acquiescence 
in  Presbytery,  omitted  to  mention  that  the  Commissioners  from  Ire- 
land thought  it  expedient  to  drop,  in  their  negotiations,  all  mention  of 
the  Covenant  and  prelacy. " 

Monck,  created  Duke  of  Albemarle   in   July,   was   no   politician, 
yet  he  had  the  shrewdness  to  advise  his  Sovereign  to  select  both 

'  Sharp  to  Dnimmond,  i3lh  December  1660  :  Laud.  Pii/).,  i.  47. 
-  Keid,  Hist,  of  Pres.  Church  in  Ireland,  ii.  334-6. 


THE  RESTORATION  67 

Cavaliers  and  Presbyterians  for  his  new  Privy  Council.  In  Chancellor  The  office  of 
Hyde  the  King  possessed  a  Grand  Vizier  adept  in  statecraft  and  ^  ''' 
capable  of  anticipating  and  executing  unswervingly  the  royal  will. 
Hyde  had  the  gift  of  selecting  trustworthy  subordinates  to  carry 
out  the  meanest  policy.  In  this  uncompromising  Episcopalian  and 
Monarchist,  Charles  had  an  effective  agent  in  executing  the  terms  of 
the  Declaration  of  Breda,  so  that  soon  the  short-lived  Convention 
Parliament  set  an  example  to  successive  legislatures  of  the  way  to 
dishonour  the  regicides,  alive  or  dead,  in  their  enactments  and  even 
in  their  persons. 

Considering  his  past  career,  Argyll  would  have  appeared  hypo- 
critical had  he  been  an  early  visitant  to  Court.  Yet,  anxious  to  stand 
well  with  his  Sovereign,  Argyll,  much  against  the  advice  of  Douglas 
and  other  friends,  sought  the  King's  presence  in  the  hope  that  in  a 
personal  interview  Charles  would  accept  his  explanations  for  his 
apparent  discourtesy  and  his  disloyalty  under  the  Cromwellian  regime. 
There  are  discrepant  accounts  of  the  origin  of  the  visit.  According 
to  some  he  went  of  his  own  accord  ;  to  others  that  Charles  invited 
him  ;  to  still  others  that  Lome,  being  well  received,  was  used  as  a 
decoy  to  the  trap,  having  informed  his  father  that  there  was  no 
danger.'  Sharp  warned  Douglas  that  the  King  would  receive  Argyll  The  arrest  of 
badly.  Lauderdale,  now  Secretary  of  State,  was  not  averse  to  the  "^ 
extinction  of  his  new  rival,  if  he  had  not  already  determined  on 
vengeance  for  his  old  enemy.  Consequently,  when  Argyll  appeared 
in  the  presence-chamber  the  King  had  him  promptly  arrested  there 
in  circumstances  which  betokened  a  public  affront.  From  the  Tower 
he  was  conveyed  by  ship,  along  with  Judge  Swinton,  down  to  Scot- 
land to  be  tried  for  treason.  He  arrived  at  Leith  on  20th  December 
and  was  thrown  into  Edinburgh  Castle.  A  similar  warrant  was  sent 
to  Major-General  Morgan  to  seize  Sir  James  Stewart,  Provost  of 
Edinburgh,  Sir  John  Chiesley  of  Carsewell,  and  Lord  Wariston. 
Wariston  escaped  to  the  Continent  for  a  time.     This  was  a  foretaste 

•  Fr.iser,  /vet/  Book  of  Grami/ully,  ii.  151  ;  Argyll  Papers,  17  ;  Mackenzie,  Memoirs,  13  ; 
Willcock,  The  Great  Marquess.  302  note  :  Unmet,  i.  193. 


68  THE  COVENANTERS 

of  the  arbitrary  government  which  the  country  was  to  experience  for 
twenty-eight  years. 
The  King  re-  The  first  care  of  Charles  was  to  have  a  government  reconstituted 

Government  in  foi*  Scotland/  The  following  appointments  were  made  :  Middleton, 
Scotland.  Commissioner  to  Parliament  and  Generalissimo  ;  Glencairn,  Chan- 
cellor ;  Lauderdale,  Secretary  ;  Rothes,  President  of  Council ;  Craw- 
ford, Treasurer;  Sir  William  Fleming,  then  Primrose,  Clerk- Register. 
Lauderdale  chose  Sharp's  brother,  William,  to  be  his  secretary — a 
fateful  appointment.  This  Council  was  meant  to  be  a  domestic  one, 
associated  with  Hyde  and  other  English  statesmen  close  to  the  person 
of  the  King.  The  Committee  of  Estates,  nominated  in  1651,  which 
Monck  swept  away  from  Alyth,  was  indicted  to  meet  in  Edinburgh 
on  23rd  August,  and  to  form  a  provisional  government  till  Parliament 
should  assemble.     This  Committee  had  limitless  powers." 

While  all  former  attempts  at  effecting  a  reconciliation  between  the 
Resolutioners    and    Remonstrants   and     Protesters    had    failed,    the 
sinister    reports    and   intrigues  of  Sharp  helping  to  widen  the   gulf 
between    them,   the    Protesters,    after    a    final    effort    to    induce    the 
Resolutioners  to  join  them  in  presenting  an  address  of  welcome  to 
the  King,  resolved  to  make  it  on  their  own  account.     On  the  requisi- 
tion of  five  ministers,  James  Guthrie,  Trail,  and  others,  they  met  at 
Edinburgh  in  the  house  of  Robert  Simpson,  on  the  same  day  (23rd 
Protesters  met  August)  on  which  the  Committee  of  Estates  assembled.     The  Privy 
King  are         Council  declared  the  meeting  to  be  an  unwarrantable  and  illegal  con- 
arrested,  23rd   yocation  tendingf  to  sedition  and  the  rekindling^  of  civil  war,  and  three 

August  1660.        _  "  _  ^ 

times  ordered  them  to  disperse.  On  their  refusal,  soldiers  were 
dispatched  to  seize  them  and  their  papers  and  lodge  them  in  the 
Castle.  They  apprehended  James  Guthrie  of  Stirling;  Robert 
Trail,  Edinburgh  ;  John  Stirling,  Edinburgh  ;  Alexander  Moncrieff, 
Scone;  George  Nairn,  Burntisland;  Gilbert  Hall,  Kirkliston;  John 
Murray,   Methven  ;  John  Scott,  Oxnam  ;  John  Semple,  Carsphairn  ; 

'  Mackenzie's  History  is  valuable  here.  According  to  a  letter  of  Mackenzie  to  Lauderdale 
of  date  1673,  the  first  part  of  the  book  was  revised  by  Lauderdale  :  IVoiirpw  MSS.,  xxxii.  212 
Advocates'  Library. 

-  Privy  Couficil  Rfi^isler :  Acfa  1661-7,  MSS,  in  Register  House,  Edinburgh. 


THE  RESTORATION  69 

Gilbert  Ramsay,  Mordington,  ministers ;  and  Kirko  of  Sandywell, 
Dunscore,  an  elder.  They  were  committed  to  close  prison  in 
Edinburgh  Castle.  Robert  Row,  Abercorn,  William  Wishart, 
Kinneil,  left  the  meeting  before  the  soldiers  arrived,  and  Andrew- 
Hay  of  Craignethan  escaped  capture.' 

A  Supplication,  seized  at  their  capture,  testifies  that  their  inten- 
tions were  harmless  and  praiseworthy.  Loyally  they  congratulated 
Charles  on  his  restoration,  totally  banned  the  regicides  and  their  acts, 
including  toleration,  warned  him  of  popery,  prelacy,  and  prayer-books, 
prayed  him  to  preserve  the  Scottish  Church,  craved  him  to  own  and 
make  all  others  own  the  Covenant  and  the  Westminster  Standards. 
They  concluded  by  praying  that  his  piety  would  make  him  '  a  king 
with  all  the  virtues  of  all  the  godly  kings  of  Israel.'  The  innocents  did 
not  know  Charles,  nor  his  abettors."  Glencairn  and  his  fellows  read 
treason  into  the  document  at  once.  The  prisoners  maintained  that 
the  printing  of  their  Supplication  would  convince  the  public  that  their 
aims  were  laudable,  and  they  petitioned  to  be  relieved,  promising  to 
fall  away  from  their  Remonstrance  of  1650.  From  his  cell,  Stirling 
wrote  to  his  kirk-session  :  '  Yet  this  is  my  comfort  that  whatever  the 
world  say  or  believe,  the  cause  I  suffer  for  is  the  Lord's,  and  no  less 
than  the  avowintj  of  his  marriagfe  contract  in  a  sworn  covenant 
betwixt  the  three  kingdoms.'^  To  prevent  other  contemplated  Severities  of 
assemblies  the  Committee  of  Estates  issued  another  illegal  proclama-  "'^ 
tion,  24th  August,  prohibiting  under  highest  pains  all  meetings,  con- 
venticles, and  seditious  papers  unauthorised  by  the  Crown.  Victims 
were  next  singled  out  for  punishment.  During  September,  John 
Graham,  Provost  of  Glasgow,  John  Spreul,  town  clerk  there,  Patrick 
Gillespie,  Principal  of  Glasgow  University,  John  Jaffray,  Provost  of 
Aberdeen,  and  William  Wishart,  minister  of  Kinneil,  were  thrown 
into  jail.  Gillespie  and  Guthrie  were  carried  off  to  Stirling  Castle 
into  safest  custody. 

'  Lamont,  158  ;  Row,  Blair,  357  ;  Nicoll,  298  ;  Mackenzie,  16  :  Act.  Privy  Council,  23rd 
August  1660.  -  Wodrow,  i.  68-71. 

'  nth  September  1660:  Wodrow,  i.  73  note. 


70  THE  COVENANTERS 

Return  of  At  this  vcry  junctuFC  Sharp  returned  from  his  mission.     Although 

we  find  him  in  December  informing  his  clerical  correspondent  in 
London,  Patrick  Drummond,  that  he  had  pleaded  for  Guthrie  and 
his  fellows  in  misfortune,  this  boast  is  not  in  harmony  with  the  im- 
placable hatred  he  evinced  towards  the  Remonstrants  in  his  letters  to 
Lauderdale,  wherein  he  urged  Lauderdale  to  take  extreme  measures 
against  the  '  hairbrain  '  rebels.  He  rendered  Guthrie's  petition  inept 
by  asserting  that  Guthrie  not  only  justified  the  murder  of  the  King,  but 
proclaimed  that  Scotland's  revulsion  from  the  deed  was  a  sin.  A 
little  later  he  practically  recommended  to  Lauderdale  the  extinction 
of  these  '  leading  impostors,  Guthiree,  Gillespy,  Rutherford,  which 
will  daunt  the  rest  of  the  hotheads  who  in  time  may  be  beat  into 
sound  minds  and  sober  practises.'  ^  Sharp  knew  this  was  palat- 
able counsel  to  his  patron  and  master,  to  his  peer  in  treachery  and 
deceit.  For  years  Lauderdale  had  disdained  to  look  upon  the 
extreme  Covenanters  as  worthy  to  be  reckoned  Scotsmen.' 

Lauderdale's  regard  for  Presbyterianism,  and  the  Covenants  which 
he  subscribed,  was  now  merely  the  memory  of  the  obsolete  faith  of  his 
callow  youth.  Through  dark  days  he  had  clung  to  his  early  love,  but 
on  the  advent  of  regal  splendour  and  pleasure,  that  affection  sickened 
and  died  in  a  heart  which  had  grown  corrupt.  He  actually  told 
Burnet  that  he  had  recommended  Presbytery  to  the  King,  who  replied, 

'x\\^  volte  fate  'let  that  go,  for  it  was  not  a  religion  for  a  gentleman.  '^  Lauderdale 
would  be  a  loyal  gentleman  ;  and,  after  that  rebuff,  Presbytery  to  him 
was  a  mere  temporary  political  expedient  to  be  cast  out  whenever 
it  suited  the  King.  Since  no  solitary  fiat  could  in  a  trice  obliterate 
the  Free  Scottish  Constitution — Church  and  State — Charles  needed 
complotters  in  his  nefarious  design.  The  vision  of  an  archiepiscopal 
throne  glamoured  the  Judas  of  the  Covenant,  and  a  greed  for  pelf, 
power,  and  the  pleasures  which  these  can  procure  entangled  the 
vulgar  Lauderdale.  Charles  had  got  both  rogues  in  the  hollow  of  his 
hand. 

'  Lmicl.  Pap;  i.  41,  57,  59,  App.  Ixx.  -'  Add.  MSS.,  231 14,  fol.  84. 

3  //is/.,  i.  195. 


THE  RESTORATION  71 

In  the  royal  closet  the  trio  completed  a  plan,  the  first  detail  of  The  plan  of 

,-.        ,      c  -If  1        01  the  treacherous 

which  was  a  letter  to  be  borne  to  the  King  s  Scottish  lieges  by  Sharp,  trio. 
This  royal  missive,  dated  'At  Whitehall,  the  loth  of  August  1660,' 
signed  '  Lauderdale,'  was  addressed  to  Robert  Douglas  and  to  the 
Presbytery  of  Edinburgh.  The  crafty  document  began  by  assuring 
the  Presbyters  that  Sharp  had  loyally  executed  his  mission,  and  fully 
explained  the  ecclesiastical  situation.  It  animadverted  on  some 
disloyal  brethren,  of  course  hinting  at  the  Protesters  and  extremists 
generally,  without  considering  that  Sharp  too  had,  as  already  narrated, 
supported  Cromwell  and  taken  the  Tender.  No  mention  was  made 
of  the  Covenant.  With  studied  craft  the  royal  intentions  regarding 
the  Church  were  expressed  thus  :  '  We  do  also  resolve  to  protect  and 
preserve  the  government  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  as  it  is  settled 
by  law,  without  violation,'  as  well  as  the  ministry  living  peaceably, 
'  as  becomes  men  of  their  calling.'  The  joyful  receivers  did  not  per- 
ceive the  quirk  which  Sir  George  Mackenzie  afterwards  pointed 
out :  '  When  Episcopacy  was  restored  and  this  letter  objected  by 
the  Presbyterians,  it  was  answered,  that  before  the  restoration  of 
Episcopacy  all  the  acts  whereby  Episcopacy  was  abrogated  or 
presbyterial  government  asserted,  were  annulled  by  the  Act  Rescis- 
sory ;  so  that  Episcopacy  being  the  only  church  government  then 
established  by  law,  his  Majesty  was  by  that  letter  obliged  to  own  it.'  * 
The  letter  further  owned  the  legislation  of  the  Assembly  (of  St. 
Andrews  and  Dundee)  in  1651,  promised  another  Assembly,  adjured 
the  Church  courts  to  attend  to  ecclesiastical  business  only  (then,  as 
if  pointing  directly  to  the  Protesters  and  anti-Prelatists),  while 
stamping  out  conventicles — the  seedplots  of  disaffection — and  invited 
the  Church  to  pray  God  to  give  the  King  '  fresh  and  constant  supplies 
of  His  grace.''  If  the  Devil  ever  appeared  as  an  angel  of  light 
to  the  unsophisticated,  he  did  so  then  in  Charles.  The  jubilant 
Presbyters  enshrined  the  letter  in  a  silver  casket.  On  3rd  September 
copies  of  it  were  transmitted  to  other  Presbyteries.  The  rude, 
mercenary  Middleton,  who  knew  the  intention  of  Charles  to  establish 

'  Memoirs,  i6.  '■*  Wodrow,  i.  80-4. 


72  THE  COVENANTERS 

Episcopacy,  flouted  Sharp  tor  this  trick,  and  could  never  get  over  its 
meanness.'  To  Primrose  '  he  spake  often  of  it  with  great  indigna- 
tion, since  it  seemed  below  the  dignity  of  a  king  thus  to  equivocate 
with  his  people,  and  to  deceive  them.'^  Sharp,  however,  somewhat 
mollified  Middleton  by  declaring  that  the  letter  was  only  a  temporary 
expedient,  and  that  the  King  could  be  relieved  of  his  promise  when- 
ever the  existing  establishment  was  abolished.  It  was.  and  was 
intended  to  be,  a  base  incitement  to  clerical  persecutors. 
Churchmen  These   Presbytcrians  prepared  a  gracious  address  to  their  ruler, 

fubibm  ^"  subscribed  by  thirty-two  ministers,  in  which  they  confessed  how 
much  their  spirits  had  been  revived  by  his  royal  intentions,  and  they 
transmitted  it  along  with  a  grateful  letter  to  Lauderdale,  whom  they 
still  reckoned  to  be  as  dutiful  a  son  of  '  our  Mother  Church '  as  he 
was  that  day  he  stood  a  penitent  in  Largo  Church.^  The  Synod  of 
Lothian  also  blessed  the  King  for  his  favours.  While  the  dominant 
party  in  the  Church  was  considering  what  steps  might  be  taken  with 
their  own  recalcitrant  brethren,  the  Committee  of  Estates  was  forging 
new  fetters  for  both  discredited  parties.  On  19th  September  a 
proclamation  was  published  calling  in  all  copies  of  Rutherford's  Lex 
Rex  and  Guthrie's  Causes  of  Gods  Wraths  as  works  poisonous  and 
treasonable,  with  certification  that  refusers  would  be  held  to  be 
enemies  of  the  King,  and  punishable  according  to  the  Committee's 
discretion.  The  executive  government  wished  no  aftermath  of  horrid 
reminiscences.  The  tombs  of  Henderson  in  the  Greyfriars'  Church- 
yard, and  of  George  Gillespie  in  Kirkcaldy,  had  their  inscriptions 
erased.''  In  another  proclamation  a  wider  net  was  spread  to  catch 
all  injudicious  critics  of  the  authorities,  and  to  silence  glib  pulpiteers, 

'  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  App.  Ixxviii.  :  .Sharp  to  Middleton,  2isl  May  1661. 

'  Burnet,  i.  198.  ■'  Wodrow,  i.  83. 

^  Mackenzie,  17.  NicoU,  373-9,  records  the  defacement  at  a  later  date;  'For  .  .  .  Mr. 
Alexander  Hendirsone,  minister  at  Edinburgh,  a  learned  and  pious  man,  depairttit  this  lyff 
upon  the  18  day  of  August  1646.  Efter  quhais  death  thair  wes  ane  monument  or  sepulcher 
erectit  with  ane  pyramite  abone  the  sepulcher,  to  his  honor  and  commendation,  bot  withall, 
a  relatioun  to  the  League  and  Couenant,  ingrauen  in  great  letters  hewin  out  of  stone  ;  quhilkis 
letters  wer  all  hewit  doun  and  blottit  out  by  ordour  of  the  Estaites  of  Parliament  now  sitting 
in  Edinburgh  in  Junii  1662.'     The  Cromwcllian  citadels  were  also  speedily  demolished. 


THE  RESTORATION  73 

satirical  rhymers,  scurrilous  rakers  of  unpalatable  tales,  sympathisers  inquisition 
with  the  Remonstrance,   listeners  who  failed  to  report  libellers,  and  p^^;^^  (-^yn^ii 
orators  outside  the  lawful  courts  of  Church  and  State.*     The  mesh  inspired  by 
was  small  enough  to  catch  the  least  that  had  an  idea  of  his  own. 
Every   hearer  was   a   catchpole   to  entrap   his  pastor.      Dates  were 
immaterial.     A   hair    was    made    a    tether   of.      Words    once   feeble 
enough  appeared  treasonable  in  an  official  'hue  and  cry.'     An  uncon- 
stitutional inquisition  was  thus  sprung  upon  the  exhausted  country. 
A   reign  of  terror  began.     Great   men    tried    to    protect   the    little. 
Eglinton   writes    to    Lauderdale   craving   pardon   for   one    Ralston, 
probably  a  vassal,    'for  he  is  a  very  pretty  man.'-     Every  suspect, 
when    disowning  the    Remonstrance,  had   to    produce  a    substantial 
cautioner.      The    sermons    of    John    Dickson,    Rutherglen,    James 
Naismith,    Hamilton,    and    James    Simpson,    Airth,    brought    these 
honest  men  to  jail.     This  Act  of  Silencing  struck  equally  at  Remon- 
strants,   Protesters,   and   Resolutioners — meddlers    in    the    affairs    of 
State.     Colonels   Barclay  and  Ker  preferred  flight  and  ostracism  to 
the  tender  mercies  of  the  inquisitors.     Wariston,  for  whom  a  reward 
of  five  thousand  merks  was  offered,  sought  a  refuge  on  the  Continent. 
Not   to   be   foiled   in    his   scheme,    Lauderdale   sent   down    another 
proclamation,  12th  October,  referring  to  a  Parliament  to  be  convened 
in  order  to  assert  the  royal  prerogative,  and  to  be  constituted  as  the 
final  judge  of  the  conduct  of  the  lieges.     The  sting  was  at  the  end  : 
no  subject  was  to  '  presume  to  go  out  of  the  country,  without  licence 
of  the  Committee  of  the  Estates,  under  pain  of  being  esteemed  and 
pursued  as  a  contemner  of  our  authority.'     In  the  autumn  the  bench 
was  packed  with  Royalists.     The  King's  prerogative  was  the  substi- 
tute for  the  Covenant,  and  the  new  touchstone  to  effect  everything. 
Corrupt  officials  began  to  scent  fines  and  forfeitures,  while  poverty  Reason 
produced  many  parasites  content  with  the  leavings  of  these  persecut-  persecutions. 
ing  extortioners.     To  this  fact  can  be  traced  clearly  the  motives  for 
the  inhuman  prosecution  of  the  Covenanters.     Many  landed  gentry 

'  20th  September  1660:  'A  Proclamation  against  all  seditious  railers,'  etc. 
»  AM.  MSS.,  231 1 1,  fol.  66:  October  1660. 

VOL.  II.  K 


Sharp. 


74  THE  COVENANTERS 

were  summoned  before  the  Committee  of  Estates,  and  were  forced 
to  sign  bonds  for  their  good  behaviour. 

Sharp  partly  The  tortuous  couTsc  which  Sharp  continued  to  pursue  in  order 

enigma.  ^^  rehabiHtate  the  Scots  Church  on  a  basis  of  usefulness  and 
influence,  according  to  his  own  conception  of  the  function  of  the 
Church,  is  now  easily  explained  by  means  of  the  Lauderdale  Papers} 
Sharp's  letters  prove  that  he  had  the  gift  of  hiding  his  ideas  and 
intentions  in  copious  language  which  seemed  to  reveal  them.  He 
could  express  a  superfine  distinction  which  an  ordinary  mind  would 
not  have  noticed.  They  also  prove  that  Sharp,  dissimulator,  liar, 
and  traitor,  well  styled  by  Patrick  Walker  '  a  compound  of  wicked- 
ness,' was  not  without  a  politic  aim.  I  entirely  homologate  Mr.  Dodds 
in  this  conclusion  of  his  estimate  of  Sharp  :  '  For  well-concocted,  cold- 
blooded, systematic  dissimulation,  he  stands  almost  without  a  match 

Views  of  in  history.'^  Nevertheless,  what  in  March  1661  he  confessed  to  his 
correspondent,  Patrick  Drummond,  seems  to  have  been  a  conception 
of  long  standing,  that  Presbytery  had  a  foundation  in  Scripture,  but 
that  Scottish  Presbytery  was  not  ex  jure  divino?  He  could  not 
conscientiously  affirm  with  his  co-prelate  Leighton,  that  forms  of 
government  and  ceremonies  were  merely  human,  happy  expedients, 
and  that  the  hierarchy  might,  with  advantage  to  Church  and  State, 
retire  altogether.'*  Nor  could  he  quite  brook  the  purely  Erastian 
conception  that  the  King  was  head  of  the  Church,  which  was  merely 
a  bureau  of  the  State.  Ten  years  after  he  had  ascended  the  Episcopal 
throne  he  protested  to  Lauderdale  that  he  had  never  been  in  '  the 
habitude  of  parting  by  my  own  consent  with  the  rights  of  the  episcopal 
order  which  have  been  ever  acknowledged  by  the  Christian  Church.'^ 
He  convinced  himself  that  he  had   the  part  of  a  patriotic  reformer 

'  These  papers  in  twenty-six  volumes  are  preserved  in  the  liritisli  Museum.  I  have 
consulted  the  originals.  They  consist  of  letters,  reports,  petitions,  and  memoranda  which 
Lauderdale  received  while  he  was  Secretary.  A  selection  of  them  have  been  ably  edited  by 
Mr.  Osmund  Airy  for  the  Camden  Society,  1884.  A  large  transcript  of  Sharp's  letters  is 
preserved  in  Edinburgh  University  Library.  In  (ilasgow  University  copies  of  a  few  letters 
exist  :  press  mark  BE.  8,  d.  18. 

=   The  Fifty  Years'  Struggle,  99.  =  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  88. 

*  Leighton  to  Lauderdale,  gth  Nov.  1673  :  ibid.,  ii.  238.  *  Ibid.,  ii.  215. 


THE  RESTORATION  75 

to  play  in  '  restoring  the  King's  interest  to  its  lustre  in  Scotland ' 
by  removing  the  Church's  encroachments  in  civilibus,  and  restoring 
what  the  Crown  had  evacuated  in  ecclesiasticis.  He  could  well  say, 
'  I  am  a  Scot  and  a  Presbyter,'  if  he  believed  in  the  primitive 
equation  of  bishop  and  presbyter,  as  scholars  do  now.'  He  claimed 
spiritual  independence  for  the  Church,  and  the  right  of  the  Church,  in 
Assembly  met,  to  make  and  alter  her  own  polity.  He  disclaimed  any 
personal  intention  of  transforming  Presbytery  into  Diocesan  Episco- 
pacy, but  asserted  the  right  of  the  Church  to  arrange  the  conditions 
of  the  inter-relationship  of  regal  authority  and  ecclesiastical  jurisdic- 
tion. He  desired  a  reference  to  a  General  Assembly."  The  sequel 
compels  one  to  imagine  that  this  professed  gospeller  after  the 
primitive  model,  all  the  same,  had  his  tongue  in  his  cheek  while  he 
was  writing  :  '  Whatever  lot  I  may  meet  with  I  scorne  to  prostitute 
my  conscience  and  honesty  to  base  unbecoming  allurements,'  such 
as  a  crozier,  mitre,  and  throne !  ^  With  Charles,  Lauderdale,  and 
Royalists  generally,  he  abhorred  extreme  Presbyterians,  Protesters, 
and  suchlike,  whom  he  designated  impostors  venting  '  antimagis- 
tratical  and  pernitious  principles '  and  devoid  of  '  reason  and  under- 
standing.' Douglas  never  suspected  that  his  envoy  had  prelatical 
leanings,  and  the  moderate  Covenanters  entrusted  to  Sharp  the 
realisation  of  their  most  hallowed  hopes.      His  error  lay  in  concealing  Sharp's  sin, 

h^.i.  ...  .  .,  ...  ,  .  ambition. 

IS  predilections ;  his  crime,  in  cunnmgly  executing  his  predetermina- 
tion. His  fall  was  not  gradual,  but  was  the  quick  result  of  his 
predetermination.  We  must  admit  that  he  had  an  ambition  to  serve 
and  save  the  Church.  Of  quick  wit  and  of  open  eyes  and  ears. 
Sharp  could  not  fail  to  observe  the  low  morale  of  King,  courtiers,  and 
country.  The  aristocracy  made  no  secret  of  hating  the  disciplinary 
Church  and  rigid  ministry,  while  legislators  made  religion  subservient 
to  private  interests.  He  was  convinced  that  Parliament-men  aimed 
at  humiliating  the  clergy  to  beggary,  slavery,  and  contempt,  against 
which,   having  no   representation    in  the  Government,  they  had   no 

'   Add.  MSS.,  231 14,  fol.  94  ;  J.aud.  Pap.,  i.  50.  2  /^^^  p^,p    \   ^3. 

s  Ibid.,  i.  50. 


76  THE  COVENANTERS 

redress.     As  it  was,  pastoral  livings  were  sublimated  away  and  juris- 
diction was   ineffective.     There   was  another  danger  which  he  must 

o 

have  noted — five  thousand    Papists   had   swarmed  into  Scotland  on 
the  downfall  of  the  Commonwealth  and  the  return  of  Charles.'     But 
there  is  no  evidence  to  show  that  Sharp  might  also  have  abjured 
Protestantism  and  become  a  Papist.     Unconscious  of  his  own  weak- 
ness and   inability  to  stem  the  rising  tide,  Sharp  may  have  become 
one  of  those  obstructionists  out  of  whom  Lauderdale  said  he  would 
drive  the  conceit.      Without  the  genius  of  Mazarin  to  outmanceuvre 
the  King's  secular  advisers,  Sharp  condescended   to  deception,  and 
simply  incited  his  fellow-conspirators,  who  were  still  more  clever  at 
Sharp's  alter-    dissembHug,    to    use   him   as    one  knave  to  foil  others.     When  the 
supreme  crisis  came  in  1660,  Sharp  had  one  out  of  three  choices  to 
make :    to    throw   in   his   lot  with   the  Church   in  her  ultramontane, 
bureaucratic,  or  Erastian  form.     The  Church  might  be  (i)  rehabilitated 
in    prestige   and    spiritual    independence    under    Presbytery    and    its 
parties,  divisive  and  internecine  ;  or  (2)  reconstituted  as  a  department 
of  State  under  the  control  of  Parliament,  in  which  the  pastors  had 
no   seats  (for  the   seculars   in  the   Estates   did  not  care   for  clerical 
colleagues) ;  or  (3)  re-established  as  a  fief  of  the  Crown  and  subject 
to  the  Sovereign's  will  alone.     When  the  choice  was  between  the  rule 
of  the  many,  of  the  select  few,  and  of  one.   Sharp  thought  that  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  King  was  the  safest — safest  too  for  himself      His 
choice  he  afterwards,  with  other  bishops,  gratefully  called  the  '  settle- 
ment of  this  Church  upon  its  ancient  basis.'  ^ 
Earl  of  Middle-        On    Hogmanay  night    1660,  a  night  of  national  carnival,  John, 
°"''  '         '  first  Earl  of  Middleton,^  with  Doctor  James  Sharp,  his  chaplain,  took 
up  residence  in  Holyrood   House.     On  the  morrow  this  counterfeit 
of  a  noble,  a  mercenary  hungry  for  forfeitures,  was  to  represent  the 
King   on  the  throne  of  Scotland   in   its   Parliament.      The  Capital 

'  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  170. 

'  Bishops  to  King,  12th  September  1662  :  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  IX.  ii.  446. 

'  Son  of  John  Middleton,  proprietor  of  Caldhame,  Marykirk,  killed  by  the  soldiers  of 
Montrose  in  1645  as  he  sat  in  his  chair:  Fraser,  Laurencekirk ,  55;  Jervise,  Mtm.  Aug., 
ii.  154. 


THE  RESTORATION  11 

was   throno^ed  with  the  needy — with    bankrupt  landlords,   deprived  First  Restora- 

.  .  ,  ,,  •  V  u    J  tionParlia- 

ministers,  restored  exiles,  weeping  widows,  all  swearing  they  had  ^^^^^  jst 
suffered  for  the  Crown  and  clamouring  for  compensation,  which  many  J^""^''>'  '^^' 
got  out  of  the  estates  of  their  ecclesiastical  opponents.  The  Estates 
in  all  splendour  rode  up  the  Canongate  with  the  ancient  Honours, 
now  restored  from  their  romantic  place  of  burial.  Again  Douglas 
was  the  preacher,  and  his  inaugural  sermon,  based  on  the  text 
(2  Chron.  xix.  6),  'Take  heed  what  ye  do;  for  ye  judge  not  for  man, 
but  for  the  Lord,  who  is  with  you  in  the  Judgment,'  must  have 
sounded  as  a  jest  in  the  ears  of  that  unprincipled  convention.  There 
the  bankrupt  legislators  sat  in  purple  and  fine  linen,  in  fur  and 
feather,  all  anxious  till  their  petitions  for  ratification  of  their  lands  and 
honours  should  be  granted  by  the  Crown.  '  Never  any  parliament 
was  so  obsequious  to  all  that  was  proposed  to  them,' wrote  Mackenzie,^ 
for,  '  tamed  into  a  slavish  subjection  by  the  usurpers,  they  were 
ashamed  to  allow  less  power  to  their  own  king.'  Baillie  corroborated 
this  fact,  stating  '  The  parliament's  pulse  was  quickly  felt :  for  when 
Cassilis  moved  that  the  election  of  president  should  be  by  vote  of 
parliament,  the  Commissioner  obtained  that  the  Chancellor  should 
preside  by  virtue  of  his  office,  as  before  it  wont  to  be.'"  Glencairn, 
a  reliable  courtier,  accordingly  took  the  chair.  Subscription  of  the 
Covenant,  exacted  by  former  Parliaments,  was  not  demanded.^ 

Middleton's  instructions   under  fourteen  heads  were  explicit — to  Middieton's 

,  .  ,  .  ,         _^ .       ,         .    ,  ,,  instructions. 

assert  the  ancient  royal  prerogative  and  the  Kings  right  to  call 
Parliaments,  to  disown  the  Covenanting  legislation  of  1643-9  and 
relative  statutes,  to  pass  an  Act  of  Oblivion,  to  encourage  trade,  to 
annul  confiscations,  to  give  precedence  to  the  officers  of  the  Crown, 
and  to  give  sepulture  to  the  remains  of  Montrose.*  Middleton  was 
also  to  discover  privately  the  popular  view  of  Episcopacy.^ 

On  7th  January  1661,  Middleton,  Parliament,  magistrates,  citizens, 
military,  and  the  clan  Graham,  wended  their  way  to  the  gallows-foot 
on  Boroughmuir,  now  Morningside,  a  suburb  of  Edinburgh.     There 

'  Hist.,  19.  -  Letters,  iii.  463.  '  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  7. 

*  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  39  :  signed  at  Whitehall,  iglh  Nov.  1660.  '"  Burnet,  i.  199. 


78 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Montrose. 


Theexhuma-  lay  the  hashed  trunk  of  Montrose,  without  head,  heart,  or  limbs, 
Montrose.  beside  the  bones  of  his  comrade,  Sir  William  Hay  of  Dalgety.^  In 
a  casket,  with  canopy  and  black  pall  over  it,  the  remains  were  borne 
away  by  peers  and  barons,  amid  military  music  and  popular  huzzas, 
Kenmure  leading  the  jubilant  cavalcade.  They  halted  at  the  Tolbooth 
till  Graham  of  Gorthie,  kinsman  of  Montrose,  had  climbed  the  lofty 
gable  and  removed  from  the  rusty  pike  a  grinning  skull,  alleged  to 
be  that  of  the  hero."  Amid  the  plaudits  of  the  onlookers  he  lovingly 
kissed  the  head,  then  descended  to  have  it  circled  with  a  coronet  and 
laid  beside  the  trunk  to  be  borne  away  to  Holyrood  Abbey.  Four 
days  the  two  heroes  lay  in  state.  A  rainstorm  ceased  awhile,  on  the 
nth  May,  to  permit  the  sun  to  burst  through  and  glorify  the  most 
The  burial  of  extraordinary  burial  ever  witnessed  in  the  Capital  of  Scotland.  In 
splendour  it  vied  with  the  coronation  of  Charles  i.  As  an  exhibition 
of  tragic  irony  this  demonstration  has  no  parallel.  It  was  virtually 
the  public  penance  of  King  Charles  ii.,  who  was  there  in  proxy  in 
the  person  of  Middleton,  to  honour  the  bones  he  gave  to  the  gallows- 
birds.  Middleton,  whose  unoffending  father  fell  to  the  swords  of  the 
raiders  of  Montrose,  who  himself  had  given  Montrose's  home  to  the 
flames  and  shot  his  domestics  at  a  post — a  Malignant,  Cromwellian, 
and  whitewashed  Covenanter  by  turn — was  paid  to  mourn  and  drink 
that  day,  and  to  safely  house  in  Holy  Church  the  fragments  of  a 
comrade  he  fought  with,  an  antagonist  he  pursued.  Nobles  who 
had  sent  Montrose  to  his  doom — Tweeddale,  Roxburgh,  Forrester — 
joined  Cavaliers,  who  bled  with  him,  in  making  his  burial  memorable. 
With  '  wedding  countenances,'  we  are  told,  they  in  a  magnificent 
cortege,  with  honours,  arms,  colours,  and  relics,  accompanied  the 
remains  through  files  of  soldiery,  over  the  very  spot  where  the  hang- 
man  hashed   his   body,  up  to  the   renovated    '  eastmost '   Church  of 

'  Cf.  Register  House,  Hist.  Dept.,  Q.  299,  for  Hay. 

-  Cf.  antca,  vol.  i.  467.  Sir  Edward  Walker  made  the  following  interesting  note  regard- 
ing Cromwell's  actions  in  Edinburgh  :  '  For  now  having  settled  the  minds  of  the  People  at 
Edenborough,  blockt  up  the  Castle,  released  all  the  prisoners  there,  and  (as  I  hear)  caused 
the  Head  of  the  Marquess  of  Montrose  to  be  taken  down  and  buried,  upon  Saturday  the  15th 
of  September,  he  marched  thence  to  Leithgow,  having  got  a  Recruit  of  600  men  out  of 
England '  :  Hist.  Disc,  1 87. 


THE  RESTORATION  79 

St.  Giles.  In  the  Montrose  aisle  they  deposited  Montrose  in  a 
splendid  tomb.  Charles,  no  doubt,  imagined  that  he  had  thus 
appeased  the  >nanes  of  his  faithful  servant  whom  he  had  forsaken. 
The  Covenanting  clergy  did  not  countenance  the  significant,  pro- 
phetic pageant.  According  to  a  quaint  narrative,  the  ministers  '  like 
howlets '  kept  out  of  sight,  the  superstitious  giving  this  reason,  '  lest 
the  bones  of  both  should  bleed.' ' 

The  fearful  Argyll  in  his  prison  in  the  Castle  could  hear  the 
salvoes  of  artillery  and  the  shouts  of  the  merry  crowds  that  day,  and 
probably  the  lively  music  and  the  hilarity  of  the  gentry  who  danced 
out  that  funeral  night.  His  jailer,  obliging  or  vindictive,  could  easily 
point  out  to  the  prisoner  the  pike  which  gallant  Gorthie  had  left 
vacant  for  another  skull — it  was  to  be  that  of  Argyll  himself — for 
mobs  to  hiss  at  and  Castle  gunners  to  make  a  target  of.  Gorthie 
would  not  enjoy  this  revenge.  He  died  that  night,  after  his  act  of 
devotion,  and  the  Covenanters  said  it  was  a  judgment. 

From  January  till  12th  July  the  eager  Parliament-men,  under 
their  taskmaster,  Middleton,  worked  at  their  tale  of  bricks, — nearly 
four  hundred  enactments,  many  of  them  having  the  stamp  of 
Lauderdale  upon  them. 

The  first  statute,  entitled  'Act  constituting  the  Chancellor  President  statuu-s  of 
in  all  time  coming ;  and  for  taking  the  oath  of  Parliament,'  at  the  very 
outset,  made  Charles  master  of  the  situation."  The  kernel  of  the 
'  Oath  of  Allegiance,'  which  was  to  have  such  momentous  issues, 
was :  '  I  acknowledge  my  said  Soverane  only  supream  Governor  of 
this  Kingdome  over  all  persons  and  in  all  causes  .  .  .  renunce  and 
forsake  all  foreign  Power  .  .  .  and  shall  never  decline  his  Majesties 
Power  and  Jurisdiction,  as  I  shall  answer  to  God.'  This  oath  and 
acknowledgment  of  the  King's  prerogative  was  required  of  all  public 
officials  ^  and  burgh  magistrates.^  Cassillis  himself  was  proceeded 
against  for  ignoring  this  statute,  and  debarred  from  holding  any  ofifice 

'  Wiison,  Mem.  0/ Edin.,  loo;  Nicoll,  330;  Baillie,  iii.  466;  Nupier,  Memoirs,  u.  819-37. 
F"or  relics  of  Montrose,  cf.  Proe.  Soc.  Antiq.  Scot..,  xxxi.  65. 

^  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vil.  7,  Act  I.  ^  Ibid.,  Act  62,  p.  44. 

*  Ibid.,  .\ct  255,  p.  236. 


8o  THE  COVENANTERS 

of  trust.'  Here  in  a  moment  was  a  coup  d'dtat  which  patriots,  Parlia- 
ment-men, and  pastors  did  not  expect,  and  could  not  remedy  till  the 
Revolution.  Realising  its  import  and  far-reaching  intention,  they 
then  demanded  the  insertion  of  the  word  'civil'  before  'supream 
authority,'  but  Melville,  Cassillis,  and  another  member  from  Ayrshire 
failed  to  get  this  qualification  inserted.  Middleton  and  Glencairn 
assured  the  timorous  that  no  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  was  aimed  at. 
The  westland  men,  inflexibly  loyal  to  the  Presbyterian  cause,  feared 
the  destruction  of  their  freedom  gained  in  1592,  and  their  protest  now 
was  the  expiring  voice  of  political  liberty." 
King  Charles,  In  this  way,  Charles  11.  became  Pope  of  Scotland— a  Hildebrand, 

iand!°  '^^  ^'^^  ^^  vestige  of  religion,  however.  He  was  monarch  of  all  he  sur- 
veyed. His  Parliament,  in  several  statutes,  declared  the  King's  pre- 
rogative to  select  the  officers  of  state,  to  call  and  dissolve  Parliaments 
and  all  meetings,  to  nullify  all  future  convocations,  leagues,  and  bands 
made  without  royal  sanction,  to  make  peace  or  war,  to  annul  the  con- 
vention which  resulted  in  the  League  with  England  in  1643,^  to  rule 
arbitrarily,  irresponsibly.  The  second  Act  turned  Wariston  out  of 
office  and  declared  him  fugitive  and  traitor.*  Another  Act  (10)  granted 
two  thousand  merks  to  the  brave  Mrs.  Christian  Fletcher  or  Granger  of 
Kinneff  Manse,  for  saving  the  Honours  of  Scotland  at  Dunnottar  Castle. 
Statute  repudi-  These  enactments  were  followed  on  25th  January  by  one  of  supreme 
Covenant  'uh  importance,'  entitled  '  Act  concerneing  the  League  and  Covenant  and 
January  1661.  dischargeing  the  renewing  thereof  without  his  Majesties  warrant  and 
approbation.' "^  It  declares  that  document  and  the  Acts  relative  to  it 
not  obligatory  on  the  kingdom  or  lieges,  who  are  henceforth  forbidden 
to  interpose  by  arms  or  in  any  seditious  way  in  religious  or  secular 
affairs  in  the  three  kingdoms,  or  to  renew  any  Covenant  or  Oath 
without  royal  warrant.  This  was  a  sore  blow  to  enthusiasts  with 
visions  of  a  universal  Presbyterian  brotherhood.  Worse  was  to  follow. 
Indeed,  it  was  not  easily  seen  where  the  Government  was  tending  to. 

'  Act.  Pari.  Sc'o/.,  vii.  163.  -  Baillie,  iii.  463;  Wodrow,  i.  93. 

3  Aci.  Pari.  Scol.,  vii.  16,  Act  18.  *  Ibid.,  vii.  7.  '  Ibid.,  vii.  18,  Act  22. 

^  Cf.  Test  or  Declaration  that  Covenants  are  seditious,  August  1C63  :  Act.  Pari.  Scol.,  vii. 
462. 


THE  RESTORATION  8i 

It  was  not  enough  to  ban  Anabaptists,  Quakers,  mass-priests,  to  banish 
the  Remonstrators  out  of  the  city,  to  approve  of  the  Engagement  of 
1648,  and  rescind  the  ParHament's  work  in  1649,  and  other  judicial 
proceedings  during  the  usurpation.'  One  result  of  this  Act  was  the 
restoration  of  Church  patronage  to  loyal  subjects,  who  might  appoint 
Royalists  to  vacant  charges.^  Sir  Archibald  Primrose,  half  in  jest,  Rescissory 
proposed  to  consummate  this  nefarious  work  by  passing  an  Act  ung"iegIsiation 
rescinding  all   the  legislation  of  the  period    1640-8,  on  the    ground '"  pe"od 

164O-I64S. 

that  it  was  unconstitutional.  Middleton  and  his  friends  considered  this 
over  their  cups.  '  When  they  had  drunk  higher,  they  resolved  to 
venture  on  it.'  °  A  rough  draft  extracted  from  Primrose,  when  he  was 
sick  or  maudlin,  sufficed  the  Committee  of  Articles,  and  it  became  law, 
28th  March.*  The  obfuscated  Commissioner  saw  no  inconsistency  in 
expunging  records  at  whose  making  Charles  had  been  present,  or  which 
he  had  afterwards  ratified — under  restraint,  Middleton  alleged — so  long 
as  he  secured  more  power  for  the  new  ruler.  This  calamitous  legis- 
lation razing  the  foundations  of  the  Church,  and  obliterating  the 
indemnities  agreed  to  by  the  Crown,  as  Burnet  truly  wrote,  was  '  only 
fit  to  be  concluded  after  a  drunken  bout.'''  The  unscrupulous  legal 
advisers  of  Middleton— Primrose,  Mackenzie  of  Tarbet,  Urquhart, 
and  Fletcher,  knaves  all — knew  what  they  were  driving  at.  That 
same  day  on  which  this  Act  Rescissory  passed,  another  bill  entitled 
'Act  concerning  religion  and  Church  Government'  became  law."  1 1  Act  concerning 
was  the  King's  latest  thank-offering  to  God  for  his  preservation  and  Mafch"i66i' 
restitution!  It  was  also  his  first  papal  rescript.  In  it  he  resolved  to 
maintain  the  national  Reformed  Protestant  religion,  '  in  its  purity  of 
doctrine  and  worship  as  it  was  established  in  this  kingdome  dureing 
the  reigne  of  his  royall  father  and  grandfather  of  blessed  memory,'  to 
give  protection  to  ministers  who  stuck  to  their  calling,  to  settle  and 
secure  Church  government  in  a  frame  most  in  accordance  with  God's 

1  Aa.  Pari.  SiOt.,  vii.  30,  Act  46.  "  Act  291,  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  272. 

^  Burnet,  i.  215. 

■•  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  86,  Act  126:  'Act  rescinding  and  annulling  the  pietendit   Parlia- 
ments in  the  yeers  1640,  1641,'  etc.  '  //ist.,  i.  216. 
"  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  87,  Act  127. 

VOL.  II.  L 


82  THE  COVENANTERS 

Word,  monarchy,  and  national  peace,  and  '  in  the  meantime '  to  allow 
'the  present  administration  by  sessions,  presbyteries,  and  Synods.' 
The  grateful  bacchanalian  legislators  reciprocated  this  condescension 
in  an  Act  creating  the  Royalists'  Sabbath,  according  to  the  Gospel  of 
Act  appointing  the  Book  of  Sports.  In  Mosaic  terms.  Act  210  ordains  Restoration 
Day.  '°"  Day  (2gth  May)  '  to  be  for  ever  set  apart  as  an  holy  day  unto  the  Lord, 
and  that  in  all  the  churches  of  the  kingdom  it  be  imployed  in  publict 
prayers,  preaching,  thanksgiving,  and  praises  to  God,  for  so  trans- 
cendent mercies.'  When  public  worship  ended,  then  they  might  have 
'  lawfull  divertissments.'  Were  men  ever  so  mad  since  the  sycophants 
of  Tyre  and  Sidon  shouted  to  the  glittering  Herod,  '  It  is  the  voice  of 
a  god,  and  not  of  a  man'.''  These  'lawfull  divertissments'  had  one 
meaning  to  honest,  holy  men  like  Rutherford  and  Guthrie,  another  to 
bibulous  Middleton  junketing  on  the  first  anniversary  with  Principal 
Leighton  in  the  University  hall,  and  still  another  to  the  royal  head 
of  the  Church  in  his  convocation  of  painted  harlots,  where  he  practised 
what  he  taught  :  '  All  appetites  are  free,  and  that  God  will  never 
damn  a  man  for  allowing  himself  a  little  pleasure.'^  The  Parliament 
was  next  engaged  on  the  indictments  of  Argyll,  Wariston,  Guthrie,  and 
others,  in  simplifying  poinding  (Act  218),  in  denouncing  excommuni- 
cates (Act  238),  in  penalising  actors  in  marriages  performed  by  pastors 
not  authorised  by  the  established  Church  (Act  246),  in  passing  Acts 
on  the  Sabbath,  on  swearing,  and  drinking,  in  providing  a  grant  for 
the  King  of  _;^40,ooo,  partly  out  of  ale  and  beer,  and  in  commissioning 
judges  to  execute  witches — mostly  women — who  scared  the  Earl  of 
Haddington's  tenantry  off  his  lands.-  By  a  proclamation,  strangers 
and  sympathisers  with  Guthrie's  Causes  of  Gods  Wrath  were  ostracised 
from  the  Capital. 
Terror  created  This  legislation  terrorised  the  country.  A  few  presbyteries  and 
statutes  synods,  bolder  than  the  rest,  prepared  prolix  overtures  and  declara- 

tions in  order  to  oppose  the  measures,  but,  as  in  the  case  of  Fife, 
Lothian,   and    Dumfries,   they  were  menaced  and   dispersed.      The 

'  Baillie,  iii.  469  note,  quoting  The  Work  Goes  Bonnely  On  (Edin.,  1661) ;  Rurnet,  Foxcroft 
Supp.,  50.  2  /Iff  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  App.  31. 


THE  RESTORATION  83 

Presbyterians  generally  still  had  confidence  in  Lauderdale  and  Sharp, 
the  hollow  reeds  that  were  about  to  break  and  pierce  those  who 
leaned  on  them.  But  the  disillusionment  was  not  long  delayed.  The 
more  faithful  of  the  ministers  warned  their  flocks  of  the  impending- 
danger. 

These  enactments  left  no  room  for  dubiety  in  the  public  mind 
who  the  Pontifex  Maximus  of  Scotland  was ;  and  Charles  soon  was 
accompanied  to  the  altar  by  many  assistants  carrying  the  sacrificial 
knives  and  sharing  in  the  oblations  which  he  seized  and  offered.  To 
Whom  he  offered  cannot  be  postulated. 

Argyll  was  destined  to  be  the  first  victim  of  the  reign  of  terror,  Argyll's  doom, 
having  been  devoted  to  this  end  by  the  King  himself,  as  being  repre- 
sentative of  what  was  worst  in  a  Parliament  too  free  of  the  Crown,  and 
the  basest  of  a  nation  accused  of  selling  their  Sovereign  to  regicides !  ^ 
Middleton,  in  a  maudlin  moment,  divulged  this  malice  aforethought 
of  his  master.  James  Guthrie  would  afford  a  similar  satisfaction  on 
behalf  of  the  Covenanters  and  their  '  rigid '  Church  and  system. 
Lieutenant  William  Govan,  in  place  of  a  more  suitable  victim,  would 
atone  for  the  disloyal  army  of  the  Remonstrants.  These  three  lay 
tied  to  the  horns  of  the  altar.     On  the  last  day  of  January,  Parliament,  Argyll sum- 

,  .  ^   .....    ,  .  Ill,  moned  lo  trial. 

m  the  exercise  01  its  judicial  prerogative,  sent  a  herald  to  summon 
Argyll  to  compear  on  a  charge  of  treason.  The  procedure  which 
followed  can  hardly  be  designated  a  trial.  To  Argyll's  junior  counsel 
— the  bloody  Sir  George  Mackenzie  of  the  persecuting  days — we  are 
indebted  for  a  concise  account  of  what  happened."  Argyll  petitioned 
Parliament  to  grant  him  counsel,  preferably  John  Nisbet,  afterwards 
Lord  Advocate ;  but  Nisbet,  probably  forecasting  the  foregone  con- 
clusion, refused,  so  Parliament  nominated  six  advocates,  including 
Sinclair,  Dean  of  Faculty,  Robert  Burnet,  Junior,  and  Mackenzie,  to 

'  Aci.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  App. ;  Naphtali,  193  ;  Argyll  Papers,  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  vi.  617  ; 
Hist.  MSS.  Coin.  Rep.,  v.  203  ;  Baillie,  Letters,  iii.  466  ;  Burnet,  Hist,  i.  220  ;  Row,  Blair, 
384-5  ;  Mackenzie,  Works,  i.  80-4  ;  Mackenzie,  Memoirs,  34  ;  Kirkton,  Hist.,  98  ;  Lament, 
Chroii.,  171  ;  Law,  Mem.,  10;  Nicoll,  Diary,  321,  334;  Omond,  Lord  Advocates,  \.  201; 
Wodrow,  Hist.,  i.  130;  Wodro-M  MSS.  (Advocates'  Library),  xxvii.  44-54;  x.\.\ii.  u-17  ; 
Willcock,  The  Great  Marquess,  308,  378.  '  Memoirs,  34. 


and  defences. 


84  THE  COVENANTERS 

undertake  the  defence.  Mackenzie  was  then  a  vivacious  pleader, 
twenty-five  years  old,  budding  into  fame  as  Scotland's  first  novelist, 
and,  in  his  idle  hours,  a  moraliser  on  toleration  and  stoicism.  The 
prosecutor  was  Lord  Advocate  Fletcher,  a  base,  bribable,  and 
truculent  fellow,  of  whom  his  biographer  asserts,  '  At  a  time  when 
Indictment  bad  men  were  common  he  was  one  of  the  worst.''  The  indictment 
was  a  list  of  nearly  all  the  offences  on  the  statute-book — treason, 
arson,  rebellion,  murder,  accession  to  the  murder  of  the  King.  It 
was  in  reality  a  prejudiced  narrative  of  Scots  affairs  for  a  generation. 
In  a  dignified  speech  to  his  peers  and  judges  the  accused  showed  how 
unlike  him  such  crimes  were,  claimed  protection  under  the  indemnity 
of  1 65 1,  and  pleaded  that  like  others,  he  was  compelled  to  submit  to 
Cromwell,  and,  against  his  inclination,  to  appear  to  be  disloyal.  From 
the  first  the  simplest  elements  of  justice  were  ignored  and  obstacles 
thrown  in  the  way  of  the  defence.  His  demand  for  trial  by  justiciars, 
impartial  and  expert,  for  time  to  lodge  answers  and  bring  witnesses, 
and  the  request  of  his  counsel  to  have  freedom  of  pleading,  were 
refused.  With  a  thirst  for  blood,  worthy  of  Shylock,  Fletcher,  himself 
a  repentant  complier,  so  far  lost  all  sense  of  decency  that  he  called 
Argyll  '  an  impudent  villain,'  regarding  him  as  a  doomed  man.  During 
the  early  stages  of  the  case  eftorts  were  made  in  London,  especially 
by  his  son  Lome,  who  had  married  a  niece  of  the  Countess  of  Lauder- 
dale, to  render  the  trial  null.  Afraid  of  their  success,  the  Royalists 
on  29th  April  dispatched  Glencairn,  Rothes,  and  the  useful  Doctor 
Sharp,  up  to  Court,  ostensibly  to  report  progress,  but  with  a  sinister 
purpose.  They  succeeded  in  confirming  the  animus  of  Monck,  Hyde, 
and  Lauderdale  against  the  panel.  In  the  debates,  in  which  Burnet 
and  Mackenzie  shone,  the  honest  attempts  of  Sir  John  Gilmour, 
President  of  the  Court  of  Session,  to  excise  the  unjustifiable  part  of 
the  libel,  stood  Argyll  in  good  stead.  The  daring  thrusts  of  Mackenzie 
went  hom^,  when  he  accused  his  hearers  of  being  old  compliers  too, 
and  demanded  if  it  were  not  unjust  '  that  he  [Argyll]  should  suffer 
for  acts  of  frailty,  when  the  ringleaders  and  malitious  plotters  pass 

'   Oniond,  i.  199. 


THE  RESTORATION  85 

unnoticed.'  Gilmour  justified  this  impeachment,  and  roused  Middleton 
to  retort :  '  We  are  all  of  us,  or  most,  guilty,  and  the  King  may  pitch 
on  any  he  pleases  to  make  examples.'  Gilmour's  opinion  made  the  sir  John 
House  pause  and  favour  Argyll,  when  a  fatal  incident  occurred  at  the  ^pilJ";"^' ^ 
■  last  moment.  Argyll  was  at  the  bar.  Debate  and  probation  were 
closed.  A  rude  knock  was  heard,  and  up  to  the  throne  passed  one 
Campbell,  servant  of  Macnaughton,  and  handed  a  packet  to  the 
Commissioner.'  Campbell  arrived  from  London,  and  the  packet  Monck's  six 
he  bore  contained  six  letters  or  more,  three  of  which  Argyll  letters. 
had  written  to  Lilburn  in  1653,  three  to  Monck  in  1654,  while 
Cromwell  was  master  of  Scotland.  Middleton  had  them  read  at 
once,  and  they  proved  so  far  incriminating,  by  showing  that  Argyll 
had  honestly  kept  the  letter  of  the  Tender  and  oath,  promising  to 
keep,  and  make  others,  even  his  son  Lome,  keep  the  peace.  The 
plea  of  compulsory  submission  to  the  usurper — '  the  contagion  of  these 
times,'  as  Argyll  phrased  it  on  the  scaffold — was  no  longer  acceptable. 
The  Argyllians,  crestfallen,  left  the  Court,  which  adjourned  to  meet  on 
the  morrow,  24th  May.  Then  the  charges  were  voted  proven,  young 
Montrose  alone  magnanimously  refusing  to  vote.  The  next  question 
was  'hang  or  head.'  It  was  concluded  to  decapitate  Argyll  and  to  Argyll 
fix  his  head  on  the  very  spike  which  bore  that  of  Montrose  so  long,  d^".*^"" 
In  the  absence  of  the  President,  Crawford  pronounced  with  tears  the 
doom  of  traitor's-death  and  forfeiture,  which  Argyll  on  his  knees 
received  with  calmness  and  dignity,  thereafter  protesting  his  lifelong 
fidelity  and  affection  to  the  King,  There  was  no  bitterness  in  his 
plaint,  '  I  had  the  honour  to  set  the  crown  upon  the  King's  head,  and 
now  he  hastens  me  to  a  better  crown  than  his  own.'  He  wrote  to 
the  King  asseverating  his  fidelity.  He  was  hurried  away  to  the 
felon's  cell.  Three  days  were  given  him  to  prepare  for  eternity.  In 
vain  he  pleaded  for  more.  Middleton,  ignoring  the  King's  command 
that  no  verdicts  were  to  be  executed  without  his  approbation,  was  in 

'  Alexander  Macnaughton  of  that  Ilk  was  knighted  by  Charles  ll.  In  1653,  Argyll  dis- 
charged a  lieutenant  of  the  same  name,  who  vowed,  '  if  he  were  but  able  to  command  one 
man  he  should  be  revenged  on  them  [i.e.  English]  and  not  leave  them  one  reeking  house  in 
Kintyre' :  Willcock,  Letter  iii.,  383. 


86  THE  COVENANTERS 

hot  haste,   and  had   the   bloody  deed  over,  a  day  before  the   royal 
warrant  was  subscribed.     Middleton  and  Glencairn  were  gaping  for 
the  broad  acres  of  Argyll  and  could  not  wait.' 
Argyll  in  The  champion    of   Presbyterianism   and    Parliamentary    freedom 

prison.  never  showed  to  more  advantage  than  in  the  dungeon  and  on  the 

scaffold.  The  Tolbooth — the  well-known  'Heart  of  Midlothian' — 
with  its  Iron  House,  was  then  a  scene  of  levees,  and  frequently  a  loose 
place,  where  criminals  unseen  might  even  exchange  clothes  with  their 
visitors.  Timorous  to  the  last,  Argyll,  rather  than  hazard  an  old  and 
easy  trick,  cast  off  the  dress  which  his  faithful  wife  had  persuaded 
him  for  a  little  to  put  on  for  a  disguise.  One  of  the  brutal  customs 
of  that  epoch  was  to  deal  frankly  with  departing  friends.  But  the 
moribund  often  met  death  with  equal  familiarity.  The  bluff  Mac- 
kenzie, on  a  final  visit  to  his  client,  told  him  '  that  the  people  believed 
he  was  a  coward,  and  expected  he  would  die  timorously.'  To  this 
Argyll  replied  'he  would  not  die  as  a  Roman  braving  death,  but  he 
would  die  as  a  Christian  without  being  affrighted.'"  In  prison, 
Argyll  had  acquired  that  ecstasy  of  faith  which  makes  the  martyr 
defiant  and  serene.  He  held  discourse  with  the  ministers,  Douglas, 
Hutchison,  Dickson  ;  and  he  settled  his  earthly  affairs  with  precision. 
But  gentle  Leigh  ton,  busy  with  a  Latin  eulogy  of  Middleton,  did  not 
trouble  to  cross  the  Cowgate  to  bid  farewell  to  Argyll  and  Guthrie. 

How  different  David  Dickson!  He  was  Argyll's  bedfellow  on 
the  night  before  his  execution.^  Yet  Professor  Reid  writes  : ''  '  Con- 
trasted with  him  [Leigh ton],  these  unbending  Presbyters  are  apt  to 
appear  in  an  unlovely  light.'  After  the  deed,  Middleton  met  Crawford 
and  asked  him  '  if  he  did  not  believe  that  his  [Argyll's]  soul  was  in 
hell.'  '  Not  at  all,'  exclaimed  Crawford,  '  Argyll  was  naturally  a  very 
great  coward  and  was  always  afraid  of  dying  ;  so  since  he  had  heard 
he  had  died  with  great  resolution,  he  was  persuaded  that  was  from 
some  supernatural  assistance ;  he  was  sure  it  was  not  his  natural 
temper.'^ 

>  Burnet,  223  ;  Wodrov/,  Anal.,  ii.  52,  loj  ;  //is/.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  v.  203.      -  Memoirs,  47. 
'  Kirkton,  103.  *  Lee  Lecture  (1899),  11.  '  Burnet,  i.  226. 


THE  RESTORATION  87 

On  Monday  27th  May,  as  Argyll  was  leaving  for  execution,  he 
called  forth  Guthrie  for  a  parting  embrace,  during  which  Guthrie 
happily  said:  'My  Lord,  God  hath  been  with  you,  He  is  with  you, 
and  God  will  be  with  you  ;  and  such  is  my  respect  for  your  Lordship, 
that  if  I  were  not  under  sentence  of  death  myself,  I  could  cheerfully 
die  for  your  Lordship.'  He  walked  down  to  the  scaffold  at  the 
Cross  on  High  Street.  Standing  beside  The  Maiden,  his  heart,  Argyll  on  the 
according  to  Cunningham,  his  physician,  beating  no  stroke  the  more,  May^iesf^' 
he  bade  a  chaste  farewell  to  the  crowd.'  He  blessed  God  and 
pardoned  men  ;  gloried  in  his  share  of  the  Reformation ;  declared  the 
Covenant  to  be  heaven-inspired  and  binding,  even  on  the  unborn  ; 
asserted  his  unwavering  devotion  to  the  reigning  House,  and  his 
repugnance  at  the  death  of  Charles  ;  and  rebuked  the  sins  of  the  day. 
He  turned  to  gaze  upon  the  glittering  blade,  while  he  spoke  of 
sufferers  for  sin  in  these  terms  :  '  Mine  is  but  temporal,  theirs  shall 
be  eternal ;  when  I  shall  be  singing,  they  shall  be  howling.'  His 
final  audible  prayer  was  for  the  King,  Government,  and  Council. 
He  knelt,  laying  his  neck  on  the  block,  and  the  loaded  blade  sheared 
off  his  head.  Friends  bore  his  body  to  the  Magdalen  Chapel  in 
the  Cowgate,  to  await  transportation,  first  to  Lothian's  vault  at 
Newbattle,  thence  to  the  mausoleum  at  Kilmun  ;  the  hangman  fixed 
the  head  on  the  Tolbooth  top." 

There  are  three   remarkable  facts   connected   with   the  death  of  Difficulty  in 
Argyll  which  are  worthy  of  mention  :  the  original  record  of  his  trial  ^?||"'^''j°^  "^ 
has   disappeared,    and   only    references    to    the    trial    appear    in    the  character  of 

Arp\'ll. 

statut^book ;  none  of  the  Campbell  clan  drew  a  dirk  to  save  their 
chief;  no  westland  Whig  nor  '  Bauld  Buccleuch '  dared  to  break  the 
prison  of  their  leader.  This  latter  fact  may  be  explained  on  the 
supposition  that  Argyll  had  never  created  enthusiasm  among  the 
Covenanters,  as  his  rival  Montrose  fascinated  his  following,  and  that 
the  Covenanters  always  attributed  the  timidity,  caution,  and  diplomacy 

^  Mackenzie  preserves  it.  Memoirs,  41. 

-  In  the  chapel  the  table  on  which  the  body  lay  is  still  shown.  The  vault  still  exists. 
The  Maiden  is  preserved  in  the  Museum  of  the  Society  of  Antiquaries  in  Edinburgh.  The 
head  was  taken  down  on  8th  June  1664. 


88  THE  COVENANTERS 

of  Argyll  to  a  lack  of  righteous  earnestness  in  the  good  cause.  His 
noble  ending  put  a  different  complexion  upon  his  intentions  and 
operations.  It  can  hardly  be  gainsaid  that  his  death  was  a  gross 
offence  against  all  the  best  traditions  of  the  Judicial  Courts  of  Scot- 
land, and  an  unpardonable  exhibition  of  the  subservience  of  freemen 
to  an  arbitrary  will  for  the  sake  of,  it  is  almost  certain,  unrighteous 
gains.  One  well  able  to  judge  asserted  :  '  The  crowning  iniquity, 
however,  was  the  mode  in  which  a  conviction  was  obtained.  .  .  .  The 
conviction  of  Argyll  was  a  gross  miscarriage  of  justice.'^ 

The  suppression  by  the  Privy  Council  in  November  of  the  last 
speech  of  Argyll,  circulating  in  print  along  with  that  of  Guthrie, 
indicates  that  the  Covenanters  were  now  realising  the  loss  of  their 
mainstay — long  feared  by  English  statesmen — who,  they  now 
believed,  had,  with  all  his  observable  defects  of  character,  battled  in 
vain  for  a  noble  cause,  which  seemed  to  have  found  a  grave 
with  him." 
The  death  of  If  that   Monday   was  a   red-letter  day   in  the   hagiology  of  the 

Covenanters,  the  Saturday  following,  ist  June,  was  even  more 
notable,  since  on  it  Guthrie,  '  the  secretary  and  champion  of  his  party,' 
was  to  die.  Between  these  two  bloody  events  came  the  first 
anniversary  of  the  Restoration,  and  on  it  a  banquet  given  to  the 
Royal  Commissioner,  in  the  College  Great  Hall,  Edinburgh,  in 
Leighton  toasts  honour  of  thcsc  happy  times  now  come.  Principal  Leighton,  who 
Middieton.  j^^j  sworn  and  also  broken  the  Covenant,  eulogised  Middleton  in 
Latin,  and  broke  glasses  with  him — the  then  noble  inaugurator  of 
'a  mad  time,'  from  which  he  was  soon  to  be  a  despised  ftutcast 
himself.^ 

Dr.  Sharp,  in  February,  settled  in  St.  Andrews  as  Professor  of 
Divinity,  was  aware  of  the  doom  that  had  been  arranged  for  Guthrie  ; 
and  a  week  before  Guthrie  was  called  to  the  Bar  of  Parliament, 
Sharp  wrote  to  Drummond  to  this  effect :  '  Poor  Mr.  James  Guthrie 

'  Omond,  i.  174. 

'■!  Aldis,  List,  1689  ;  Speech  upon  the  Scaffold,  etc.  (1661),  fol. 

2  NicoU,  335. 


THE  RESTORATION  89 

is  to  appear  upon  Tuesday  nixt,  and  though  less  criminous  than 
others,  is  lyke  to  be  the  only  sacrifice  of  our  coat.' '  Sharp  wrote  to 
Lauderdale  in  favour  of  this  friend  he  accused  as  a  traitor,  but  after 
Guthrie  made  his  manly  and  exculpatory  defence,  the  patronage  of 
Sharp  ceased,  and  Sharp  deserted  him,  he  confessed,  because  of  his 
'  pertinatiousnes.'  On  20th  February,  Guthrie  was  brought  to  the 
bar  to  receive  his  dittay.  On  loth  April,  he  heard  the  full  indictment  indictment 
for  treason  under  five  heads  read  out."  He  was  accused  under  ^j^^"^^ 
statutes  of  James  vi.  of  (i)  treasonable  utterances  against  the  Crown 
and  Government,  and  especially  of  writing  and  promulgating  the 
Remonstrance;  (2)  writing  and  publishing  a  seditious  book  entitled 
The  Causes  of  God's  Wrath  ;  (3)  calumniating  the  King  and  Govern- 
ment, intermeddling  in  civil  affairs,  and  trying  to  subvert  the  Church 
and  State  ;  (4)  unlawfully  convening  the  lieges  as  if  the  King  was 
menacing  Protestantism  ;  (5)  ignoring  the  jurisdiction  of  the  King 
when  he  was  summoned  to  Perth  in  165 1.  No  mention  was  made  of 
the  excommunication  of  Middleton  by  Guthrie  nor  of  the  Commis- 
sioner's animus  on  that  account.  Guthrie  made  a  noble  defence  Guthrie's 
worthy  of  an  ingenuous  patriot.  The  replies  of  the  accused  were 
simple  and  direct,  asserting  that  he  had  no  share  in  composing  the 
Remonstrance  ;  never  uttered,  nor  intended  uttering,  disloyal  expres- 
sions ;  acted  according  to  a  conscience  directed  by  the  Bible,  the 
standards  of  the  Church,  the  Covenants,  and  the  laws  of  the  land — all 
legal  instruments ;  ever  '  keeping  himself  within  the  bounds  of  what 
was  competent  to  a  minister  of  the  Gospel.'  He  avowed  a  consistent 
loyalty,  and  gave  two  striking  illustrations  of  it  in  proving  that  he 
opposed  Cromwell  as  a  usurper,  and  had  preached  against  the 
Tender,  for  which  he  was  ejected  from  his  pulpit  and  had  soldiers 
'quartered  upon  him  for  six  months.''  His  speech  on  the  nth  April 
was  the  brilliant  effort  of  a  man  imbued  with  genuine  piety,  a  pure 
conscience,  and  a  deep  sense  of  responsibility  for  his  ministerial  duty 
to  men.*     Behind  that  dreamy,  mystical  face,  there  lurked  a  fire  that 

'  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  74,  14th  Feb.  1 66 1.  -  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  App.  34. 

'  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  App.  37.  ■"  Wodrow,  i.  171. 

VOL.  II.  M 


90  THE  COVENANTERS 

kindled  in  him,  as  he  spoke,  a  fervour  similar  to  what  filled  the  seers 
of  old,  and  he  concluded  a  high-toned  apology,  which  has  few  like  it 
in  the  martyrologies,  with  these  words  no  less  brave  than  prophetic  : 
'  I  know  for  certain  that  the  Lord  hath  commanded  me  to  speak  all 
those  things,  and  that  if  you  put  me  to  death,  you  shall  bring  innocent 
blood  on  yourself,  and  upon  the  inhabitants  of  this  city.  My  Lord, 
my  conscience  I  cannot  submit,  but  this  old  crazy  body  and  mortal 
flesh  I  do  submit  [he  was  but  forty-nine]  to  do  with  it  whatsoever  you 
will,  whether  by  death,  or  banishment,  or  imprisonment,  or  anything 
else  ;  only  I  beseech  you  to  ponder  well  what  profit  there  is  in  my 
blood :  it  is  not  the  extinguishing  me  or  many  others,  that  will 
extinguish  the  Covenant  and  work  of  Reformation  since  the  year 
1638.  My  blood,  bondage,  or  banishment  will  contribute  more  for 
the  propagation  of  those  things,  than  my  life  or  liberty  could  do, 
though  I  should  live  many  years.'  This  vision  he  expanded  as  he 
stood  on  the  ladder  top — his  Pisgah  height  of  glory.  Its  fulfilment 
was  exact.  Here  was  all  the  enthusiasm  of  Andrew  Melville  revived 
in  the  cause  of  spiritual  and  political  freedom,  and  voiced  in  the 
fearless  spirit  of  John  Knox.  Four  days  later  they  found  the  charges 
proved,  but  his  eloquence  had  staggered  his  judges,  and  they  with- 
held sentence,  doubtless  delaying  to  see  if  highland  pride  or  westland 
faith  would  dare  anything  for  Argyll. 
Doom  of  On   the   day  after   Argyll's  execution,    the   day  before   the    wild 

revelry  in  which  Middleton  and  Leighton  engaged,  Guthrie  was 
brought  once  more  to  the  bar  to  learn  his  ignominious  fate  and 
barbarous  doom — as  a  traitor  to  be  hanged,  his  possessions  forfeited, 
his  coat-of-arms  torn  and  dishonoured,  his  head  fixed  on  the  Nether 
Bow,  and  his  children,  a  little  boy  and  a  girl,  Willie  and  Sophia,  and 
their  posterity  made  beggars  for  ever.^  It  fired  the  blood  of  Guthrie,* 
who  began  to  harangue  his  judges,  adjuring  heaven  'that  his  innocent 
blood  might  not  be  charged  on  the  throne,  and  hoping  that  his  head 
would  preach  more  on  the  Port  than  ever  in  the  pulpit.'  He  was 
interrupted  and  violently  dragged  away   to  his  cell."     The  Earl  of 

'  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  App.  74.  "  Row,  Blair,  386. 


Guthrie. 


THE  RESTORATION  91 

Tweeddale,  who  was  of  a  humane  temperament  and  moderate  views, 
horrified  at  such  an  unprecedented  punishment  for  a  pastor,  voted 
against  the  sentence,  so  that  he  became  a  suspect  and  soon  found 
himself  Hngering  in  prison  and  under  surveillance  for  eight  months.' 

At  the  same  time  an  old  decree  of  forfeiture  obtained  in   165 1  The  case  of 
against  Lieutenant  William  Govan  for  his  desertion    to  the  Crom- 
wellian  ranks  was  revived,  and  the  panel  also  sent  to  the  same  fate, 
the  verdict  being  varied  to  the  small  extent  that   his  head  was   to 
adorn  the  West  Bow. 

Govan  was  a  small  land-holder,  married,  had  been  a  subaltern  of 
Remonstrating  Strachan  in  the  west,  had  followed  him  to  the  north 
and  proudly  brought  back  to  Parliament  the  standard  of  Montrose ; 
but  gossip  had  it  that  he  too  played  an  ignobler  part  on  the  scaffold  of 
King  Charles,  as  headsman  or  guardsman,  and  actually  brought  first 
news  of  his  execution  into  Edinburgh." 

The  weary  weeks  of  waiting  in  the  Tolbooth  Guthrie  spent  con-  Guthrie  in 
versing  with  his  wife,  children,  and  friends,  among  whom  was  the 
staunch  Covenanter,  William  Guthrie  of  Fenwick,  his  cousin ;  com- 
posing his  last  speech ;  and  in  communion  with  the  Most  High. 
Taking  his  little  Willie  on  his  knee,  he  counselled  him  thus  :  '  Willie, 
they  will  tell  you  and  cast  up  to  you  that  your  father  was  hanged  ; 
but  think  not  shame  of  it,  for  it  is  upon  a  good  cause.'  His  last 
speech,  couched  in  chaste  and  charitable  terms,  is  a  striking  testimony 
to  his  invincible  faith.  He  declared  that  he  died  willingly  ;  he  might 
have  escaped  the  enemy  by  staining  his  innocency,  but  would  not ; 
he  might  have  eluded  his  warders,  but  would  not  act  dishonourably 
even  to  jailers  ;  he  had  been  asked  to  comply,  but  '  durst  not  redeem 
my  life  with  the  loss  of  my  integrity,'  he  wrote  ;  '  I  judge  it  better  to 
suffer  than  to  sin  ' ;  he  had  always  been  loyal  and  commended  loyalty, 
which  springs  from  piety ;  he  could  not  accuse  himself  of  being 
unfaithful  to  his  ministry  ;  he  had  been  '  a  man  of  contention  and 
sorrow '  only  for  Christ's  sake ;  he  was  a  Protester  against  Malig- 

1  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  99  ;  Burnet,  i.  228-31. 

^  Acl.  Pari.  Sco/.,  vii.  75  ;  Mackenzie,  Memoirs,  51. 


92 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Guthrie's 

testimony. 


The  Martyr- 
dom of 
Guthrie, 
1st  June  l66l. 


nancy ;  and  events  made  the  righteousness  of  the  Protest  '  now 
manifest  to  many  consciences '  (that  sentence  must  have  given  a  sore 
heart  to  Robert  Douglas)  ;  he  blessed  and  forgave  all.  As  Argyll 
had  uttered  a  final  doleful  note,  so  did  he  in  repeating  the  causes 
of  God's  wrath — profanity,  the  broken  Covenants,  national  ingratitude 
for  past  blessings,  and  the  corruptions  of  many  carnal  ministers. 
Animadverting  upon  modern  Babylon,  with  its  prelacy,  liturgy, 
and  ceremonies,  he  penned  the  malison  :  '  Whosoever  else  be  he  that 
buildeth  this  Jericho  again  let  him  take  heed  of  the  curse  of  Hiel,  the 
Bethelite,  and  of  that  flying  roll  threatened,  Zechariah  v.'  This 
utterance  is  usually,  without  much  authority,  appended  to  the  speech 
of  Henderson  at  the  close  of  the  Glasgow  Assembly.  Guthrie  further 
testified  to  his  personal  faith,  to  his  adherence  to  Presbytery  and  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  to  the  Covenants,  and  to  the  crucified  Christ. 
Of  the  Covenants  he  affirmed  :  '  These  sacred,  solemn,  public  oaths 
of  God,  I  believe  can  be  loosed  nor  dispensed  with,  by  no  person,  or 
party  or  power  on  earth,  but  are  still  binding  .  .  .  and  will  be  for 
ever  hereafter.'  With  such  a  faith,  '  he  would  not  exchange  this 
scaffold  with  the  palace  or  mitre  of  the  greatest  prelate  in  Britain.' 
He  was  ready,  like  Simeon,  to  depart,  for  his  eyes  had  seen  salvation.' 
Tolbooth  life  had  aggravated  the  lameness  of  the  prisoner,  formerly 
known  as  '  Sickerfoot.' 

On  the  fatal  afternoon,  he,  staff  in  a  loosely  roped  hand,  tottered 
down  the  High  Street,  side  by  side  with  martial  Govan,  into  the  ring 
of  glittering  pikes  and  blades  around  the  scaffold,  on  which  the  blood 
of  Argyll  was  barely  dry.  Having  ascended  a  few  rungs  of  the 
ladder,  Guthrie  spoke  for  an  hour.  Bishop  Burnet  saw  him  suffer, 
and  declared  that  he  gave  his  testimony  '  with  the  composedness  of  a 
man  that  was  delivering  a  sermon.'"  He  mounted  still  higher  when 
he  exclaimed  :  '  Art  Thou  not  from  everlasting,  O  Lord  my  God.  I 
shall  not  die,  but  live.'  Before  the  hangman  turned  the  ladder, 
Guthrie  lifted  the  napkin  from  his  pensive  face  and  uttered  the 
prophetic  cry,  long  the  watchword  of  the  persecuted,  '  The  Covenants, 


'  Wodrow,  i.  192. 


2  Hist.,  i.  228. 


THE  RESTORATION  93 

the  Covenants  shall  yet  be  Scotland's  reviving.'  According  to  Sir 
George  Mackenzie,  Guthrie  was  executed  simply  for  declining  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  King  and  Council  at  Stirling,  i.e.  laesa  niajestas, 
just  as  Andrew  Crichton  had  suffered  in  1610/ 

While  thus  one  '  hothead '  had  cooled,  another  '  hairbrain '  was  The  execution 
waiting  his  turn.  These  are  Sharp's  designations  for  the  men  no  ° 
gibbet  could  '  daunt.'  As  the  martyr  dangled  in  the  air  Govan  looked 
up,  and  being  reminded  of  Christ's  cross,  exclaimed  :  '  It  is  sweet,  it 
is  sweet ;  otherwise  how  durst  I  look  upon  the  corpse  of  him  who 
hangs  there,  and  smile  upon  these  sticks  and  that  gibbet  as  the  gates 
of  heaven.'"  This  Puritan  soldier  was  in  his  prime,  thirty-eight  years 
old,  and  having  found  Christ  twenty-four  years  before,  was  now  able 
to  re-echo  Guthrie  and  confess,  '  Sin  and  suffering  have  been  presented 
to  me,  and  I  have  chosen  the  suffering  part.'  When  the  halter  was 
adjusted  the  bold  campaigner  fired  his  parting  shot :  '  The  Com- 
missioner and  I  went  out  to  the  fields  together  for  one  cause  ;  I  have 
now  the  cord  about  my  neck,  and  he  is  promoted  to  be  his  Majesty's 
Commissioner ;  yet  for  a  thousand  worlds  I  would  not  change  lots 
with  him, — praise  and  glory  be  to  Christ  for  ever.' 

The  hackster  kept  the  heads,  but  handed  the  bodies  of  the  Devotion  of 
executed  to  friends  in  waiting.  As  Guthrie's  corpse  lay  in  the  Old  admirers! 
Kirk  aisle,  where  ladies  dressed  it,  enthusiasts  came  to  dip  handker- 
chiefs in  the  blood  and  prayed  for  vengeance  ;  while  a  young  man, 
afterwards  the  famous  surgeon,  George  Stirling,  sprinkled  the  body 
with  a  perfume  that  sweetly  pervaded  the  sacred  building.  There  is 
a  gruesome  story  told  of  the  blood  oozing  down  from  the  pike  till  it 
dropped  on  the  royal  coach  of  Middleton,  as  he  drove  through  the 
Netherbow  Port  on  his  way  to  or  from  Holyrood.  Nothing  could 
erase  the  martyr's  blood.  The  skull  remained  there  till  after  the 
disastrous  fight  at  Bothwell  Brig,  when  it  was  ordered  that  the  heads 
and  hands  of  the  two  ministers.  Kid  and  King,  captured  after  the 
fight,  were  to  be  fixed  beside  it,  14th  August  1679.^  Shortly  after 
this  date  the  head  was  taken  down  by  a  student,  Alexander  Hamilton 

'  Laws  and  Customs,  etc.,  25.         ^  Wodrow,  i.  195.         =  Fountainhall,  Observes,  i.  22S. 


94  THE  COVENANTERS 

( 1 662-1 738),  afterwards  minister  at  Ecclesmachen  and  Airth  and  also 
of  the  charge  in  Stirling  held  by  Guthrie.' 

Thus  passed  Guthrie,  who  is  generally  looked  upon  as  the  proto- 
martyr  of  the  Covenant,"  a  man  of  high,  consistent  character,  deep 
spirituality,  and  lovable  nature,  unbending  where  he  deemed  that  God 
had  revealed  His  judgment,  yet  confessedly  human  and  humble  as  a 
follower  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  fate  of  other  suspects  and  prisoners  must  now  be  considered. 
On  19th  September  1660  the  Committee  of  Estates  proclaimed 
Rutherford's  Lex  Rex  and  Guthrie's  Causes  of  God's  Wraih  to  be 
infamous,  seditious  works,  poisoning  the  springs  of  loyalty ;  and  they 
ordered  all  copies  to  be  handed  to  the  authorities  to  save  their 
possessors  from  the  charge  of  treason,  and  in  order  to  be  burned  at  the 
public  crosses  by  the  hangmen,  as  was  done  in  Edinburgh  and  St. 
The  summons  Andrews.  Rutherford  was  cited  to  compear  before  the  Committee, 
Rutherford.  t)ut  being  Certified  to  be  sick  and  unable  to  travel,  was  punished  by  a 
sentence  of  deposition  from  his  licence,  professorship,  stipend,  and 
personal  freedom,  and  also  summoned  to  the  bar  of  Parliament.  Now 
that  Guthrie  was  in  the  noose,  and  Gillespie  quaking  on  the  repent- 
ance stool.  Parliament,  not  to  be  balked  of  the  prey  foredoomed  by 
Sharp,  sent  a  herald  to  hale  the  dying  professor  to  Edinburgh.  He 
found  the  old  enthusiast  bedfast.  There  was  still  as  much  of  the 
piping  voice  left  as  to  answer  :  '  Tell  them  that  sent  you  that  I  have 
got  summons  already  before  a  Superior  Judge  and  Judicatory,  and  I 
behove  to  answer  to  my  first  summons,  and  ere  your  day  come,  I  will 
be  where  few  kings  and  great  folks  come.'  This  was  the  last  bolt 
that  Uriel  hurled  before  returning  to 

'  God's  presence,  nearest  to  His  throne.' 
The  defiant  message  worse  incensed  the  prosecutors,  who  would  have 
ejected  the  dying  man  out  of  college,  had  not  a  taunt  from  Burleigh 
restrained  them  :  '  Ye  have  voted  that  honest  man  out  of  the  college, 
but  ye  cannot  vote  him  out  of  heaven.'     They  retorted  :  '  He  would 

'  Scott,  Fasti,  iv.  675.    The  forfeiture  of  Guthrie  was  rescinded  on  22nd  July  1696. 
2  Some  students  consider  Argyll  a  sufferer  for  his  politics  more  than  for  his  faith. 


THE  RESTORATION  95 

never  win  [get]  there ;  hell  was  o'er  good  for  him.'  To  this  Burleigh 
made  rejoinder  :  '  I  wish  I  were  as  sure  of  heaven  as  he  is,  and  I 
would  reckon  myself  happy  to  get  a  grip  of  his  sleeve,  to  hale  me  in, 
when  Mr.  Rutherford  enters  the  gates.'' 

As  Rutherford's  end  drew  near,  he  seems  to  have  become  exalted  Death  of 
in  the  ecstasy  of  his  spirit  into  Paradise  itself,  where  he  beheld  the  29th  March 
same  wonders  that  the  apostle  had  no  words  to  describe  on  earth —  '^'''■ 
the  veil,  the  glory,  the  Bread  of  Life,  the  angelic  choir.    '  Glory  shines 
in  Immanuel's  Land,'  he  exclaimed  shortly  before  '  he  gave  up  the 
ghost,  and  the  renowned  eagle  took  its  flight  unto  the  mountains  of 
spices,'  on  29th  March  1661.     He  was  buried  next  day."     In  his  death 
Rutherford  offered  the  best  illustration  of  his  own  book  on  The  Trial 
and  Triumph  of  Faith,    1645.     Twelve  days  before  he   passed,   he 
emitted  his  manifesto :  A  Testimony  to  the  Covenanted  Work  of  the 
Reformation  in  Britahi  and  Ireland  from  1638  to  1649. 

The  character  and  place  of  Rutherford  are  difficult  to  define,  he 
being  almost  a  combination  of  two  antagonistic  personalities.  One 
can  readily  imagine  him  perched  high  on  some  supreme  judicatory, 
piping  with  his  shrill  voice,  from  underneath  a  full-bottomed  wig,  a  dry 
judgment  from  his  own  text-book  of  law  upon  an  uninteresting  subject 
of  dispute,  and  never  conceive  that  the  same  cold,  judicial  eye,  when 
lifted  from  leafy  Anwoth  into  the  heaven  of  his  own  imagination, 
could  see,  so  as  to  describe,  the  glories  of  the  fair  country  he  longed 
sorrowless  and  sinless  to  dwell  in  for  ever,  freed  from  law  and  only 
guided  by  love.  A  legalist  and  yet  a  lover  of  all ;  a  philosopher  and 
yet  a  prose-poet ;  a  narrow-minded  patriot  and  yet  a  citizen  warring 
for  heaven  ;  a  man  of  'passions  wild  and  strong,'  wrestling  with  him- 
self in  a  mystic's  dream,  was  Samuel  Rutherford. 

It  looked  ominous  for  Gillespie,  the  third  of  the  'antimagistratical '  Escape  of 
enemies  of  the  Crown,  as  the  jaundiced  imagination  of  Sharp  con-  JI'?!,"'^''. 

'J  *=>  r^  Gillespie. 

ceived  of  him.     On  6th  March  he  appeared  at  the  bar  of  Parliament 

'  Walker,  Six  Saints,  i.  359  ;  ii.  197  ;  Wodrow,  i.  205  ;  Gilmour,  Rutherford,  225  ;  Smellie, 
Men  of  Cov^ianl,  49  ;  Row,  Blair,  366. 
'■^  Lamont,  Chron.,  167, 


96 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Banishment 
of  Robert 
MacWard. 


Alexander 
Moncrieff 
evicted. 


and  received  his  dittay.  He  had  powerful  friends  in  the  legislature, 
and,  being  of  a  more  elastic  temperament  in  face  of  peril  than  were 
his  fellow-prisoners,  he  was  induced  to  put  an  acceptable  construc- 
tion upon  his  attitude  to  the  Remonstrance  and  to  the  'Causes,'  and 
to  prepare  a  petition  or  recantation  which  Parliament  recommended 
to  the  King  in  his  mercy.  The  result  was  that  on  6th  July  Gillespie 
was  liberated,  but  his  liberty  was  curtailed,  and  he  was  confined  with- 
in a  certain  rural  circle.^  Surprised  at  this  clemency,  the  King 
exclaimed  :  '  Well,  if  I  had  known  that  you  would  have  spared 
Mr.  Gillespie,  I  would  have  spared  Mr.  Guthrie.' " 

On  7th  June,  Robert  M'Quair  or  MacWard,  collegiate  minister  of 
the  Outer  High  Church  of  Glasgow,  was  also  found  guilty  of  sedition. 
His  simple  offence  was,  that  in  February  1661  he,  in  order  to  be  free 
of  guilt,  protested  against  all  Acts  passed  or  to  be  passed  against  the 
Covenants  and  the  Covenanted  work  of  Reformation  in  Scotland.^ 
He  modified  his  expressions  till  they  simply  bore  that  he  testified 
aofainst  such  leoislation.  The  recantation  was  insufficient.  On 
1 2th  July,  Parliament  gave  him  six  months  in  which  to  pack  up 
and  seek  a  refuge  on  the  Continent.  He  became  Scots  pastor  in 
Rotterdam  and  his  manse  was  for  long  the  rendezvous  of  the  e.xiled, 
the  headquarters  whence  issued  many  communications,  and  some- 
times pistols,  to  the  persecuted  at  home.  He  died  in  December  1681.'' 
Alexander  Moncrieff,  minister  of  Scoonie,  a  staunch  Protester,  a 
temporary  chaplain  to  Charles  11.,  and  during  the  Commonwealth  a 
consistent  opponent  of  the  Usurpers,  was  brought  before  Parliament, 
and  being  found  intractable  was  declared  incapable  of  holding  any 
place  of  trust  and  evicted  from  his  parish.''  His  popularity  as  a 
Conventicler  led  to  his  being  persecuted  from  place  to  place.  He 
escaped  confinement,  but  had  letters  of  intercommuning  passed 
against  him  in  1675.      He  survived  till  1688." 


'  A</.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  App.  i8,  66,  75,  81.  -  Wodrow,  i.  iSo. 

^  Wodrow,  i.  207.  ■*  Steven,  Scot.  Church  in  Rotterdam,  336. 

^  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  367a.     He  was  grandfather  of  Alex.  Moncrieff  of  Abernethy,  the 
Seceder. 

«  Row,  Blair,  248,  358,  418,  561. 


THE   RESTORATION  97 

Confinement  in  prison  for  ten  months  broke  the  health  of  Robert  Robert  Trail 
Trail,  who,  after  compearing  before  Parliament  and  making  a  manly  ''='°'=''^'^- 
answer  to  his  libel,  was  permitted  liberty  to  live   in  the   city,  from 
which  in  December   1662   he  was  banished  out  of  the  kingdom  on 
pain  of  death.*      For  even  corresponding  with  him,  his  wife,   Jean 
Annan,  was  sent  to  prison  in  June  1665. 

James  Kirko,  laird  of  Sundaywell,  Dunscore,  after  lying  four  James  Kirko, 
months  in  jail  was  discharged,  soon  to  find  himself  on  Middleton's  '"^"^''' 
list  of  fines  for  ;^36o,  then  plundered  for  years  into  beggary  by 
Sir  James  Turner  and  other  soldiers,  who  had  free  quarters  on  his 
estate.  He  became  a  wanderer,  and  with  Maxwell  of  Monreith  went 
to  Ireland,  after  RuUion  Green.  Probably  it  was  he  who  returned 
to  get  the  martyr's  crown,  being  shot  on  the  White  Sands  of  Dumfries 
in  1685.- 

The  case  of  Sir  John  Chiesley  of  Kerswell,  a  staunch  Covenanter,  sir  John 
knighted  by  Charles  i..  Secretary  to  the  Commissioners  in  1646, 
and  to  Parliament,  who  had  suffered  for  his  fidelity  to  the  King,  was 
discreditable  to  the  Government.  He  was  charged  with  invading 
Drumlanrig  in  1650  and  with  treason,  fined  ^2400  and  committed 
to  one  prison  after  another  for  ten  years,  till  the  King  ordered  his 
release  in  1670.^ 

The  process  against  Wariston,  who  had  evaded  arrest  and  escaped  judgment  on 
to  Holland,  was  followed  up  on  ist  February  by  a  summons  for  him 
to  compear  like  his  associates  and  answer  to  the  charge  of  treason. 
In  his  case  they  were  careful  to  take  depositions  from  witnesses  and 
to  prove  the  indictment  framed.  It  specified  in  detail  his  treason- 
able acts,  compassing  the  subversion  of  the  Government,  aiding 
and  abetting  the  rebels  against,  and  murderers  of,  the  late  King, 
associating   with    the    usurpers,    rising  in   arms  against    Charles   11., 

'  Row,  Blair,  364,  416,  430.  He  sailed  for  Holland  in  March  1663,  and  returned  to 
Edinburgh,  where  he  died  in  167S. 

2  Memoirs  of  Veitch  and  Bryson,  49,  50,  400,  403.  His  house  and  its  inscription,  'J.  K. 
and  S.  W.  [S.  Welsh]  165 1,'  remain.  For  his  epitaph,  cf.  Thomson,  Martyr  Graves, 
472,  474- 

'  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  App.  17  ;  ibid.,  96,  423a  ;  Row,  Blair,  531. 

VOL.   II.  N 


98  THE  COVENANTERS 

tyrannising  over  the  lieges,  murdering  some,  notably  Montrose, 
endeavouring  to  destroy  the  King's  majesty  after  deserting  him,  and 
many  other  felonious  acts  punishable  with  death.  On  15th  May, 
Parliament  found  the  fugitive  guilty,  and  recorded  a  '  Decreit  of 
Forfaltour '  against  him,  stripping  him  of  everything,  and  ordaining 
him  to  suffer  the  doom  of  traitors  at  the  Cross  of  Edinburgh.  A 
subsequent  judgment  honoured  his  head  with  a  place  on  the  Nether- 
bow  Port  beside  that  of  Guthrie.^ 

The  Government,  satisfied  that  they  had  made  a  good  beginning 
of  the  reign  of  law  and  order,  concluded  it  best  meantime  to  stay 
the  headsman's  hand,  and  they  left  Judge  Swinton,  twice  forfeited 
of  life,  lands,  and  estate,  languishing  in  the  Tolbooth,  banished 
Simson  of  Airth,  held  a  few  suspects  in  jail,  while  allowing  others 
out  on  bail,  such  as  John  Livingstone,  and  Nevay — the  grim  councillor 
at  Dunaverty — whose  hour  had  not  yet  come.^ 
The  Earl  of  At  this   time  a   melancholy  sight   might  have  given    Middleton 

be^'^rr"'^'  ^  pause  in  his  wild  career,  had  he  seen  it.  It  was  none  other  than 
one  of  his  predecessors  in  viceregal  office — the  Earl  of  Traquair — 
standing  on  the  streets  of  the  Capital  soliciting  alms  from  passers-by. 
Eraser,  in  his  Diary,  thus  records  the  fact :  '  I  saw  him  (anno  1661) 
beofoino;  in  the  streetes  of  Edinburoh.  He  was  in  an  antick  garb, 
wore  a  broad  old  hat,  short  clock,  and  pannien  breeches ;  and  I 
contributed  in  my  quarters  in  the  Canongate  at  that  time,  which 
amounted  to  a  noble  which  we  gave  him,  and  his  hat  off,  the  Master 
of  Lovat,  Culbocky,  Glenmoriston,  and  myselfe ;  which  piece  of 
money  he  received  from  my  hand  as  humbly  and  thankfully  as  the 
poorest  supplicant.  It  is  said  that  at  a  time  he  had  not  to  pay  for 
cobling  his  bootes,  and  died  as  we  hear  (1668)  in  a  poor  coblers 
house ;  so  that  of  him  we  may  say  with  the  poet,  who  describes 
him  well — 

'  Act.  Purl.  Scot.,  vii.  App.  7-1 1,  66,  69,  95. 

2  Row,  Blair,  388.  Simson  died  in  Holl.and.  Sharp  declared  lo  Primrose,  Lord  Register, 
that  he  begged  the  lives  of  Guthrie  and  Gillespie,  'which  his  Majesty  denied';  but  that  he 
was  successful  in  his  request  for  a  mitigation  of  the  charge  against  Simson  :  Wodrow, 
i.  197  note. 


THE  RESTORATION  99 

"  Fortunae  speculum,  Tracuerus  scandit  in  altum  ; 
Ut  casu  graviore  ruat,  regisque  favore 
Tollitur ;  hinque  cadit." '  ^ 

After  these  tragedies  were  over,  Tweeddale,  with  a  light  heart, 
entertained  the  Commissioner  to  a  sumptuous  banquet,  and  the  only 
return  which  the  Commissioner  thought  that  this  friendliness  deserved 
was  an  accusation  conveyed  in  his  report  to  the  King,  to  the  effect 
that  Tweeddale  endeavoured  to  frustrate  the  work  in  Parliament 
which  Middleton  had  been  sent  to  see  accomplished.  Such  were 
the  '  gentlemen '  for  whom  Charles  11.  declared  that  Episcopacy  was 
most  suitable !  ^ 

'  Chron.  of  the  Frasers  (Wardlaw  MS.),  476  (Scot.  Hist.  Soc,  edit.  1905). 

"  The  Lauderdale-Tweeddale  Correspondence,  in  the  possession  of  the  Marquis  of 
Tweeddale,  was  not  available  for  consultation,  having  temporarily  gone  amissing.  The 
volume  has  been  restored  to  Yester  House. 


lOO 


THE  COVENANTERS 


CHAPTER    XXI 

CONDITION  OF  THE  COUNTRY  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY — THE 
COVENANTERS  :  THE  GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  RESTORATION 


Buckle's  libel 
of  the 
Covenanters. 


The  bitterest  indictment  ever  penned  against  the  Presbyterian 
system  as  it  existed  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  will  be 
found  in  Buckle's  History  of  Civilisation  in  England.  He  expressed 
his  conclusion  thus  :  '  I  will  not  be  deterred  from  letting  this  age 
see  the  real  character  of  a  system  which  aimed  at  destroying  all 
human  happiness,  exciting  slavish  and  abject  fear,  and  turning  this 
glorious  world  into  one  vast  theatre  of  woe.'  In  another  passage  he 
wrote  :  '  Whatever  was  natural  was  wrong.  The  clergy  deprived 
the  people  of  their  holidays,  their  amusements,  their  shows,  their 
games,  and  their  sports  :  they  repressed  every  appearance  of  joy  ;  they 
forbade  all  merriment ;  they  stopped  all  festivities ;  they  choked  up 
every  avenue  by  which  pleasure  could  enter ;  and  they  spread  over 
the  country  an  universal  gloom.'  Of  their  sermons  he  declared : 
'  There  is  in  these  productions  a  hardness  of  heart,  an  austerity  of 
temper,  a  want  of  sympathy  with  human  nature,  such  as  have  rarely 
been  exhibited  in  any  age,  and  I  rejoice  to  think,  have  never  been 
exhibited  in  any  other  Protestant  country.'  The  Scots  preachers 
'sought  to  destroy  not  only  human  pleasures  but  also  human 
affections.  ...  A  Christian  had  no  business  with  love  or  sympathy.'  * 
No  more  jaundiced  critic  ever  essayed  the  measurement  of  the 
Scottish  intellect  or  showed  himself  so  incompetent  to  gauge  it. 
Aliens,  ill-informed  and  inclined  to  bias,  should  have  a  care  when  they 
emerge  from  their  own  cave  to  find  themselves  in  light  that  confuses 


the  untried  eye. 


The  following  facts  will  serve  as  a  corrective 

'  Hist,  of  Civil.,  iii.  255,  269,  275,  276. 


of 


THE  COUNTRY  IN  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY   loi 

Buckle's   erroneous    views   of    Scottish   civilisation,   at    least    in   the 
Covenanting  age.^ 

The  student,  keeping  in  view  the  fact  that  the  Covenanters  had 
high  ideals  and  noble  aims,  namely,  to  make  every  individual  recog- 
nise his  own  responsibility  for  the  temporal  and  eternal  welfare  of 
himself  and  his  neighbours,  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  love  in 
Jesus  Christ,  has  a  key  to  unlock  all  the  mysteries  of  the  distracted 
age  of  the  Covenants.  If  he  turns  to  the  Life  of  Andrew  Donaldson,  Donaldson, 
minister  of  Dalgety,  he  will  find  these  ideals  and  aims  largely  ^^1'°' ° 
realised  in  one  man,  who  may  be  accepted  as  the  type  of  the  true 
Presbyterian,  and  also  made  practical  in  that  Fifeshire  parish  where 
the  minister  laboured  to  elevate  peer  and  peasant  alike,  to  educate 
all  the  children,  to  feed,  clothe,  and  protect  the  poor,  to  assist  the 
indigent  at  home  and  the  unfortunate  abroad,  to  act  the  soldier  in 
the  hour  of  peril,  and  to  repress  vice.  It  can  be  demonstrated  that 
the  Covenanters  practised  what  they  preached  ;  purity  of  life,  truth- 
fulness, and  honesty  ;  and  further,  that  nearly  every  one  of  those 
repressive  measures  inspired  by  the  Church  for  the  curbing  of  vice 
and  mitigating  disease,  drunkenness,  profanity.  Sabbath-breaking, 
have  been,  or  are  being,  in  our  own  day,  re-enacted  by  intelligent 
governments,  so  that,  for  the  good  of  the  many,  the  suspect,  the 
unsavoury,  and  the  undesirable,  whether  alien  or  not,  are  being 
constantly  policed.  The  most  enlightened  republics  to-day  ask  from 
emigrants  the  same  certificate  of  respectability  and  ability  to  work 
which  kirk-sessions  two  centuries  and  a  half  ago  demanded  from 
incomers.'-  Nor  is  it  to  be  forgotten  that  these  sessions  were  virtually 
magisterial  courts  with  one  educated  cleric  presiding  over  many  laymen 
judging  petty  offences — surely  as  good  a  system  of  local  government 
and  magistracy  as  our  present  rural  and  burghal  system,  whereby 
many  an  ill-informed  justice  of  the  peace  disposes  of  trivial  cases  to 
the  best  of  his  judgment. 

'  Dean  Stanley,  in  Lectures  on  the  History  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  97,  pointed  out  the 
incorrectness  of  Kuckle's  'frightful  picture.' 

■^  Cf.  a  very  striking  instance  of  policing,  Glasgow  Herald,  21st  August  1905. 


I02  THE  COVENANTERS 

The  Scots  pre- Restoration  clergy  were  not  the  'plebeian  class'  nor 
the  illiterates  that  Macaulay  made  out  their  English  brethren  'on  the 
whole'  in  1685  to  be,  the  generality  of  whom  were  considered  unusually 
lucky  if  each  of  them  had  '  ten  or  twelve  dog-eared  volumes  among 
the  pots  and  pans  on  his  shelves.' ' 
Virtues  of  the  The   Scots  clergy,    abhorring  celibacy,    cultivated    domestic    and 

Covenanters.  ....  ,  .-,,,.  ,  . 

social  happmess,  and  were  noted  for  hospitality,  toleration,  and 
humanity,  which  they  enjoined  on  others.  Few  histories  can  produce 
so  many  illustrations  of  parental  and  filial  affection  as  are  found  in 
the  biographies  of  the  persecuted — the  pathetic  stories  of  Guthrie 
and  his  Willie,  the  Johnstons,  Humes,  Baillies,  Blackadders,  Camp- 
bells, and  of  scores  of  other  families  being  well  known  to  readers 
generally.  So  far  from  burking  human  joys  and  banning  amusements, 
the  clergy  encouraged  every  elevating  custom,  and  only  set  themselves 
against  those  scenes  of  riot  where  vicious  men  purveyed  incitements 
to  wickedness  for  the  debased  and  lascivious,  at  'penny  bridals,' 
paying  '  dredgies '  or  wakes,  and  prolonged  baptismal  functions  and 
funerals.  The  absurd  extravagance  at  these  debaucheries  had  to  be 
restrained  by  Act  of  Parliament  in  1681.^  No  rigidness  of  the  most 
fanatical  legislators  in  Covenanting  days  ever  exceeded  that  of  the 
Episcopal  parlementaires  of  1681,  who  forbade  even  a  bride  from 
putting  off  her  '  braws ' — her  wedding  garments — on  her  marriage 
day.^  The  Covenanters  by  two  hundred  years  anticipated  the  decorum 
now  normally  exhibited  on  those  solemn  occasions.  Indeed,  according 
to  Kirkton,  '  Nobody  complained  more  of  our  Church  government 
than  our  taverners,  whose  ordinary  lamentation  was,  their  trade  was 
broke,  people  were  become  so  sober.'* 
Music  and  Many  instances   of  the    Lowland   hatred  of  the   Celtic  bagpipes 

(declared  to  be  the  favourite  musical  instrument  of  Satan)  imply  no 
more  than  that  the  more  musical  Saxons  could  not  bear  the  sound  of 
an  instrument  which  brought  to  their  remembrance  ruthless  foes  who, 
it  is  said,  also  played  the  pipes  during  the  Irish  massacres  in  1641. 

■  Hist.,  chap.  iii.  '  1681,  c.  80,  viii.  350. 

'  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  viii.  350.  '  Kirkton,  65. 


mirth. 


THE  COUNTRY  IN  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY   103 

In  1 64 1  Lord  Lothian  had  a  piper  in  every  company  when  his 
regiment  lay  at  Newcastle,  and  at  the  same  time  there  was  not  a 
sober  fiddler  in  the  Scots  army  there.^  The  Scots  loved  the  harp, 
the  harpsichord,  the  viol,  and  the  flute,  and  still  more  the  sweet 
voices  which  sang  those  martial  ballads  and  love  lyrics  which  still 
charm  the  dainty  ear. 

Simon,  the  Master  of  Lovat,  'had  a  wonderful  fancy  for  musick,  Lovat'siove 
variety  of  which  he  had  still  by  him,  the  harp,  virginels,  base  and 
trible  viol  in  consort.  .  .  .  Mr.  John  Houstoun,  the  Minister  of  Ward- 
law  (a  Covenanter  and  member  of  1638  Assembly),  and  his  sone  Mr. 
Thomas,  were  great  musitians,  vocal  and  instrumental!,  who  frequently 
attended.'"     Simon  died  in  1640. 

In  1642,  the  year  before  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  was 
made,  the  new  Master,  Hugh  Eraser,  married  Anna,  daughter  of 
Lord  Leven,  in  Holyrood  House.  They  came  to  Bunchrew,  and 
the  diarist  wrote  :  'It  is  an  extravagant  rant  to  speake  of  the  glory 
and  expense  of  this  sumptuous  wedding  feast,'  where,  we  are  informed, 
the  'merry,  jovial,  facetious  society' — the  Earl  of  Sutherland,  a 
notable  Covenanter,  and  his  friends — had  'liquors  of  all  sorts,  meat,  Gaieties  at 
mirth,  musick,  and  good  management  of  all  things,'  besides  indulging  *^  '"^' 
in  Highland  games  and  sport.^  Twenty  years  later  similar  festivities 
took  place  in  Darnaway  Castle  at  the  wedding  of  Sir  Hugh  Calder. 
'  The  kingdom  could  not  afford  better  wines  than  was  drunk,  and 
musick  of  all  sorts;  Edam  Smith,  master  of  the  musicians  in  Murray, 
for  virginall,  violins,  harp,  and  organ,  was  Calder's  domestic.  .  .  .  We 
spent  that  day  in  a  charming  converse  of  sport,  gamming,  and  sing- 
ing.' *  Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  the  time-hallowed  sports  and 
games  connected  with  Hogmanay,  Candlemas,  Beltane,  Halloween, 
have  all  survived  till  our  own  day.  There  is  a  passage  in  the  Life 
of  John  Livingstone  where  he  mentions  the  famous  Principal  of 
Glasgow  University,  Robert  Boyd :  '  Sometimes  he  would  call  me 
and  some  other  three  or  four,  and  lay  down  books  before  us,  and 

'  K.  Sharpe,  Witchcraft,  136.  2  Fraser,  PoUchronicon,  265. 

^  Ibid.,  278.  ■•  Ibid.,  453. 


I04  THE  COVENANTERS 

have  us  sing  setts  of  music,  wherein  he  took  great  deh'ght.''  The 
manse  of  Logie  often  resounded  with  the  music  of  Hume  the  poet's 
'  jolie  lute,'  and  he  lent  his  instruments  to  his  brother  poet,  the  Earl 
of  Stirlinsf."  William  Veitch  left  the  following  anecdote  reeardinor 
Henry  Erskine,  father  of  Ralph  and  Ebenezer,  who  was  ejected 
from  Cornhill  in  1662  :  'One  evening  he,  his  wife  and  children  went 
to  bed  with  a  light  supper,  which  made  the  children  cry  in  the 
morning  when  they  awaked  for  meat.  But  there  being  none  in  the 
house  he  bade  them  be  still,  and  he  would  play  them  a  spring  upon 
the  citren  [guitar].  He  played  and  wept.  .  .  .  Before  he  had  done 
playing,  a  charitable  lady  sent  him  a  horse-load  of  provisions.' ' 
Scottish  John  Erskine  of  Carnock,  the  Covenanter,  recorded  in  his  diary  that 

sports.  j.jjg  fj^ji^g^  ggfij.  ]^Ij^  |-q  learn  dancing,  and  that  he  also  enjoyed  a  game 

at  byas-bowls  and  went  'gunning'  and  'tod-hunting.'*  The  more 
straitlaced,  like  Patrick  Walker,  who  had  escaped  the  gallows  and 
plantations,  would  not  '  crook  a  hough  to  fyke  and  fling  at  pipers'  and 
fidlers'  springs.'  He  gives  a  satisfactory  reason  thus  :  '  I  bless  the  Lord 
that  ordered  my  lot  so  in  my  dancing  days,  that  made  the  fear  ^i  the 
bloody  rope  and  bullets  to  my  neck  and  head,  the  pain  of  boots, 
thumbikens  and  irons,  cold  and  hunger,  wetness  and  weariness,  to 
stop  the  lightness  of  my  head  and  the  wantonness  of  my  feet.''^ 
Argyll,  with  his  family  and  household,  in  January  1667,  celebrated  a 
marriage,  drinking,  dancing,  'as  merrie  as  you  could  wish  us.'" 

William  Guthrie  of  Fenwick  was  both  a  fowler  and  a  fisher,  and 
his  primitive  curling-stone  is  still  preserved.^  Leven  and  King 
Charles  played  golf  at  the  Scottish  camp.  In  the  Covenanting  period 
not  a  single  Act  against  games  appears  on  the  Statute  Book. 

The  men  of  the  Covenant  were  imbued  with  a  deep-seated  love 
for  every  good  thing,  but  as  they  had  to  fight  for  essentials  they  had 
no  more  opportunities  than  other  soldiers  in  a  protracted  campaign  to 
become  occupied  with  arts,  crafts,  or  ephemeral  entertainments  that 

'  Wodrow,  Select  BtPg.,  i.  134.  ^  Fergusson,  Alexander  f/ume,  95,  97. 

^  M'Ciie,  Veitch,  204.  ■•  Erskine, _/i)«r«a/,  Introd.  xxv.  ;  xxxviii.  5. 

'  Walker,  Six  Saints,  i.  240.  "  Argyll,  Letters,  44.  '  Select  Biog.,  ii.  39. 


THE  COUNTRY  IN  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY   105 

did  not  make  for  the  moral  welfare  of  the  people.     They  loved  their  Humanitarian- 
kind.     Old  Scots  churchyards  contain  many  tombs  with  epitaphs  illus-  covenanting 
trative  of  this  domestic  felicity.     No  better  instance  can  be  found  than  ™'°'^'o- 
on  the  grave  of  Lillias  Sanderson,  whose  husband's  manse  at  Keir, 
Dumfriesshire,  was  wrecked  by  Colonel  Nathaniel  Gordon.^     Living- 
stone narrates  how  he  got  a  '  marriage  affection  '  for  his  bride  after 
prayer.      '  But   thereafter,'   he   honestly   confesses,    '  1    had   a   great 
difficulty  to  moderate  it.'     The  character  which  the  northern  Cove- 
nanters gave  their  Boanerges,  Andrew  Cant,  whom  they  reckoned  to 
be  the  '  greatest  man  of  his  age,'  was  that  he  was  '  ardent  and  loving.'  ^ 
The  epitaph  of   Patrick  Purdie,  minister  of  Newlands,  a  stalwart 
Covenanter  (1634-61),  declared  that  he 

'  to  hik  dying  day  did  never  tire 
To  feed  and  lodge  a  Lazarus  at  his  fire ; 
A  man  ingenuous  far  beyond  the  fashion. 
Wholly  composed  of  pity  and  compassion.' 

Many  ministers  left  money  for  the  poor ;  others,  like  Alexander 
Henderson,  for  education,  and  many  subscribed  handsomely  for  the 
library  in  Glasgow  University.  Ker,  minister  of  Lyne,  gave  nearly  all 
he  had  to  the  poor,  also  catechising  the  vagrants  whom  he  relieved. 
Walter  Pringle  of  Greenknowe  in  his  Memoirs  testifies  to  the  humanity 
of  Guthrie  the  martyr  :  '  At  Stirling  I  advised  with  my  dear  friend,  Mr. 
James  Guthrie,  anent  mine  own  and  my  brother's  children  (to  whom 
that  faithful  man  had  ever  a  most  tender  respect)  concernements.'^ 
Pringle's  own  narration  of  his  anxiety  for  his  wife  and  unborn  babe, 
for  whom  he  prayed  under  a  plum-tree  in  the  garden,  does  not  lack 
pathos.     The  persecutions  to  which  these  men  were  subjected  did  not 

'    HERE   LYIS   INTERRED   BENETH   THIS   BRITTLE  STONE 
'A    LII.IE   ONCE  SO   RARE   AS    FEW   OR   NONE 
WITHIN   THE  PRECINCTS  OF   FAIR   FLORA'S  TREASURE 
COULD    PARALEL   FOR   GRACE  OR   VIRTUE'S   MEASURE 
WHO    HEINO   MUCH    WEARIKD   BY  THIS    WORLD'S  TOYLE 
GOD  HATH   TRANSPLANTED  TO   A  BETTER  SOVLE.' 
*  '  Vir  suo  serulo  .  .  .  ardens  et  anians  .  .  .  Boanerges  et  Barnabas,  Magnes  et  Adamas' ; 
April  30,  1663,  aged  seventy-nine.    Tombstone  in  St.  Nicholas,  Aberdeen  :  Menteith,  Theater. 
'  Select  Biog.,  i.  432. 

VOL.   II.  O 


io6 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Guthrie. 


turn  the  milk  of  human  kindness  into  gall  and  wormwood.  Some 
Wit  of  William  retained  their  mother-wit  till  death,  even  on  the  scaffold.  William 
Guthrie,  minister  of  Fenwick,  was  'cheerful  and  facetious,  yet 
tempered  with  gravity  as  becometh  a  minister  of  Christ.'  He  was 
wont  to  indulge  in  'singular  sallies  of  wit  and  innocent  mirth.'*  No 
one  who  ever  read  Guthrie's  sermon  on  Sympathy  would  ever  class 
him  among  the  'hard-hearted.'^  So  deep  was  the  love  of  the 
persecuted  for  each  other  that  there  is  scarce  an  instance  of  any  one, 
even  when  writhing  in  the  torture-chamber  in  Edinburgh,  betraying  a 
fellow-wanderer. 

It  must  be  conceded  that  many  of  the  literary  fragments  left  by 
these  popular  preachers  are  blemished  with  gross  absurdities  and 
strange  vulgarities  of  expression,  but  it  has  to  be  borne  in  mind  that 
many  of  these  works  were  unauthorised  reports  written  out  from 
memory,  while  others  are  the  fabrications  of  enemies.  Many  are 
posthumous,  and  should  be  appraised  with  some  consideration.  There 
remain  sufficient  Session  and  Presbytery  Records  to  show  the  net 
results  of  the  doctrines  taught  by  the  'hard-hearted.'  Side  by  side 
with  passages  proving  hard  dealings  with  evil-doers,  are  others 
displaying  humanitarianism  of  the  highest  kind — indeed,  of  a  higher 
kind  than  any  of  which  we  have  any  knowledge  in  connection  with 
modern  religious  institutions.  Knox's  generous  consideration  of  the 
evicted  priests  has  already  been  referred  to.  What  finer  spirit  of 
tolerance  could  be  shown  than  that  of  John  Livingstone  of  Ancrum, 
who  after  receiving  sentence  of  expatriation  said  :  '  Well,  though  it  be 
not  permitted  me  that  I  should  breathe  in  my  native  air,  yet  I  trust 
what  part  of  the  world  soever  I  go  to,  I  shall  not  cease  to  pray  for  a 
blessing  to  these  lands,  and  to  his  Majesty,  and  the  Government,  and 
the  inferior  magistrates  thereof,  but  especially  to  the  land  of  my 
nativitie.'^  He  died  at  Rotterdam,  9th  August  1672.  The  poor, 
helpless,  broken,  the  victims  of  Irish  kerns  or  Turkish  pirates, 
aspiring  youths,  bankrupt  merchants,  harassed  natives  of  Orkney  and 

'  Select  Biog.,  ii.  65.  -  Ibid.,  ii.  66. 

'  '  A.ne  Accompt,'  etc..  Select  Biog.,  i.  2ig  (i  ith  December  1662). 


Kindness  of 
Covenanting 
times. 


THE  COUNTRY  IN  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY       107 

Shetland,  stranded  foreigners,  lepers,  and  insane  folk,  were  special 
wards  of  the  Church.^  The  modern  Church  has  fallen  from  its  high 
estate.  A  nobler  fellowship  than  ours  bound  the  Covenanted  Church 
together.  Yet  to  have  expected  men  and  women  to  fling  and  sing, 
to  play  and  be  gay,  to  carry  out  the  Gospel  of  the  Book  of  Sports  on 
Sabbaths,  and,  in  fine,  to  exhibit  the  wantonness  that  made  the  reigns 
of  the  last  Stuart  kings  unbearable,  all  the  while  the  Covenanters  had  Fears  of  the 
just  grounds  for  fearing  the  recrudescence  of  Popery,  were  repressed 
for  refusing  the  political  nostrums  of  James  i.,  were  lamenting  the 
thousands  whom  the  policy  of  Charles  i.  sent  into  bankruptcy, 
bloody  graves,  and  burning  plantations,  were  stunned  with  horror  at 
the  idea  that  Jesus  Christ  was  removed  from  His  throne  in  the  Church 
in  order  to  permit  a  ribald  ruler,  no  better  than  an  atheist,  to  quit 
his  divan  of  painted  harlots  and  salacious  courtiers  and  to  take  upon 
himself  the  governance  of  the  Church,  suggests  a  way  of  thinking 
which  Scotsmen  have  always  contemned.  The  greatest  intellect  of 
the  age,  Milton,  declared  Popery  and  idolatry  to  be  insufferable — 
the  former  being  usurped  political  authority,  and  the  latter  impiety  ; 
and  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  northern  views  of  toleration 
coincided  with  this  conclusion. 

The  commonest  intellect  in  the  north  was  able  to  appraise  the 
King's  '  religion  of  a  gentleman,' as  well  as  Hallam,  who  pertinently 
corroborated  the  Covenanters  thus :  'It  was  a  religion  of  the  boots 
and  the  thumbscrew,  which  a  good  man  must  be  very  cold-blooded 
indeed  if  he  did  not  hate  and  reject  it  from  the  hands  that  offered  it.'" 

I   am  not  inclined  to  discredit  and  discard,  as  so  many  writers  Spiritual; 
have  done,  the  remarkable  account  of  the  spiritual  condition  of  Scot-  scoti'ami. 
land,  or  at  least  of  some  districts  of  it,  in  the  Covenanting  period, 
furnished  by  Kirkton  the  historian.^*     His  narrative  bears  :   'In  the 
interval  betwixt  the  two  kings  [1649- 165 1  or  1661],  religion  advanced 
the  greatest  step  it  hade  made  for  many  years ;  now  the  ministry  was 

1  Stevenson,  The  Prcsbytrie  Booke  of  Kirkcaldy,  36,  et  passim. 
•  Const.  Hist.,  iii.  334. 

^  Hist.,  48-64.     Kirkton  was  a  graduate  of  Edinburgh  in  1647,  settled  first  in  Lanark,  then 
in  Merloun. 


io8 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Kirkton's 
testimony 
corroborated. 


notably  purified,  the  magistracy  altered,  and  the  people  strangely 
refined.  .  .  .  Scotland  hath  been  even  by  emulous  foreigners  called 
Philadelphia  ;  and  now  she  seemed  to  be  in  her  flower  ...  as  the 
bands  of  the  Scottish  Church  were  strong,  so  her  beauty  was  bright 
.  .  .  no  scandalous  person  could  live  .  .  .  most  part  were  really 
godly,  or  at  least  counterfeited  themselves  Jews  .  .  .  this  seems  to 
me  to  have  been  Scotland's  high  noon.  The  only  complaint  of 
prophane  people  was,  that  the  government  was  so  strict  they  hade 
not  liberty  enough  to  sin.' 

He  further  makes  the  important  averment  that  the  hurt  to  religion 
through  the  contentions  of  the  Resolutioners  and  Protesters  was 
'  inconsiderable  in  regard  of  the  great  successe  the  Word  preached 
hade  in  sanctifying  the  people  of  the  nation.' '  .  .  .  '  At  the  king's 
return  every  paroche  hade  a  minister,  every  village  hade  a  school, 
every  family  almost  had  a  Bible,  yea,  in  most  of  the  country,  all  the 
children  of  age  could  read  the  Scriptures,  and  were  furnished  of 
Bibles,  either  by  the  parents  or  by  the  ministers.  .  .  .  Every  minister 
was  obliged  to  preach  thrice  a  week,  to  lecture  and  catechise  once, 
beside  other  private  duties.  .  .  .  Indeed,  in  many  places  the  Spirit 
seemed  to  be  poured  out  with  the  Word,  both  by  the  multitude  of 
sincere  converts,  and  also  by  the  common  work  of  Reformation  upon 
many  who  never  came  the  length  of  a  communion  :  there  were  no 
fewer  than  sixty  aged  people,  men  and  women,  who  went  to  school, 
that  even  then  they  might  be  able  to  read  the  Scriptures  with  their 
own  eyes.  I  have  lived  many  years  in  a  parish  where  I  never  heard 
ane  oath,  and  you  might  have  ridden  many  miles  before  you  hade 
heard  any.'^  Every  family,  too,  had  family  worship.  An  almost 
identical  account  of  this  golden  age  is  given  in  the  Life  of  Alexander 
Reid,  a  Scottish  Covenanter,  zvritten  by  himself}  He  says  he  was 
born  in  Kirkliston  in  1646,  'that  flourishing  time  of  the  Gospel,' 
and  had  a  splendid  education  in  the  Scriptures  and  the  principles 
laid  down  in  the   Westminster   Standards.      In   New   Mills,  during 

•  Hist.,  54.  »  Ibid.,  64. 

'  Manchester,  1822.     He  was  the  father  of  Rev.  George  Reid  of  Ochiltree. 


THE  COUNTRY  IN  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY   109 

the  ministry  of  James  Greig  (1597- 1635),  '  in  one  winter  forty  persons 
all  above  forty  years  of  age  learned  to  read,  that  they  might  profit 
by  reading  the  Scriptures.'^  In  the  parish  of  Dalgety,  in  Fife,  we  Donaldson's 
find  a  district  which  fully  justified  the  encomium  of  Kirkton,  and  ^"" 
there  is  evidence  that  it  was  not  unique.  In  Dalgety  from  1644  till 
1662,  when  he  was  ejected,  laboured  Andrew  Donaldson,  M.A.,  a 
Protester  and  noble  sufferer  for  the  Covenant.-  The  parish  was  fully 
equipped.  Nobility,  gentry,  and  humble  parishioners  formed  a  Kirk- 
session,  fifteen  in  number.  A  reader  was  still  in  office.  Six  deacons 
cared  for  the  poor.  During  the  ministry  of  Donaldson  the  church 
was  repaired,  and  a  school  and  schoolhouse  were  erected  for  the  first 
time.  A  committee  of  the  Session  regularly  visited  the  school,  in 
which  poor  and  rich  were  taught  together — the  poor  being  provided 
with  fees  and  food.  It  was  enacted  that  little  herd-boys  be  not 
neglected,  but  sent  to  church  and  to  the  catechising  every  second 
or  third  Sabbath,  so  as  to  '  be  bred  up  in  the  knowledge  of  the 
grounds  of  religion ' — all  being  kept  at  school  till  they  were  able 
to  read  the  Bible.  The  General  Assembly  of  1642  had  appointed 
'  The  Three  R's '  as  the  minimum  of  rural  education,  namely,  Reading,  The  three  Rs 
Writing,  and  Religion.  '  Poor  bodies  '  got  Bibles  free  ;  no  fewer  than  '"  '  '*'' 
eleven  Bibles,  costing  £2  Scots  each,  being  given  away  in  one  month 
in  1654.  In  1645  the  minister  himself  went  to  the  war.  Under  such 
a  pastor — and  he  was  only  one  among  many  such — the  whole  tone 
of  the  parish  was  raised.  Humanitarianism  was  the  rule.  Hence 
we  find  the  poor  cared  for,  a  '  lame  soldier '  provided  for,  a  collection 
taken  for  a  man  whose  horses  were  suffocated,  the  pestilence  fought, 
and  the  uncharitable  publicly  rebuked  for  their  'hardness  of  heart.'" 
Elders  visited  all  the  congregation  once  a  month  to  deepen  the 
Christian  life.  Could  the  English  critic  have  produced  any  individual 
or  parochial  parallels  to  such  love  of  the  brethren  ? 

It  is  an  identical  picture  which  the  two  authors  of  Naphtali — both  Pictures  from 
competent  to  write  authoritatively — give  of  the  state  of  Scotland  before    "^  '" '' 

•  Scott,  F(isti,  iii.  183.  -  Ross,  Glimpses  of  Pastoral  Work,  q.v. 

'-  January  14,  1653,  Ross,  Glimpses. 


no  THE  COVENANTERS 

the  Restoration.  James  Stewart  (afterwards  Lord  Advocate),  with 
his  experience  of  the  Lothians,  in  the  Preface  declaring  :  '  The  land 
that  was  sometimes  Holiness  unto  the  Lord  is  become  the  borders 
of  wickedness  and  an  Aceldama.'  Stirlincr,  minister  in  Paisley,  an 
Ayrshire  man,  evidently  conversant  with  affairs  in  the  south-west, 
testifies,  'before  the  end  of  the  year  1638,  the  work  of  God  was 
revived  with  more  Glory  and  Splendour  than  ever  formerly  it  had 
attained.'^  The  Restoration  was  the  terminal  of  this  phenomenal 
movement  for  the  edification  of  the  people,  if  the  testimonies  of  John 
Livingstone  and  the  Marquis  of  Argyll  are  trustworthy.  Livingstone 
acknowledged  that  'some  two  or  three  years  after  the  English  had 
in  a  manner  subdued  the  land,  there  began  some  reviving  of  the  work 
of  God  in  the  land  in  several  parts.'"  Yet  Brodie,  in  his  Diary  in 
1655,  laments  the  awful  sins  'abounding  in  everie  congregation, 
drunkenness,  adulterie,'  etc^  Argyll  on  the  scaffold  declared  :  '  I 
hear  assuredly  that  whoring,  swearing,  and  drinking  were  never 
more  common  and  never  more  countenanced  than  now.' 
This  was  too  true,  as  the  sequel  will  show. 
Survivals  of  It  cannot  be  denied,  however,  that,  in  spite  of  the  earnest  efforts  of 

the  clergy  to  outroot  superstitions,  survivals  of  old  pagan  faith  and 
custom  were  looked  upon  as  obligatory  and  potent  as  the  Gospel. 
Recording  his  experience  in  the  Highlands  in  1652,  Clark  informed 
the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons  :  '  The  people  [are]  very 
simple  and  ignorant  in  the  things  of  God,  and  some  of  them  live 
even  as  bruitish  as  heathen  .  .  .  heard  our  preaching  with  great 
attentions  and  groanings.''  A  visitor  to  Scotland  in  1659  wrote 
a  terrible  description  of  the  immorality  and  dirt  he  discovered  there, 
and  his  indictment  was  not  minimised  by  another  writer  in  1679.'*  The 
latter  writer  refers  to  the  show  of  religion  in  the  country,  where  '  if 
you  crack  a  nut  there  is  a  grace  for  that,'  while  there  is  '  nor  decency 

'  Naph/ali,  46,  50.  -  Life,  186.  ^  Diary,  128. 

*  Scot,  and  Common.,  363. 

^  A  Perfect  De.<:cription,  etc.,  by  J.  S.  (Lond.,  1659),  22  pp.  ;  A  Modern  Account,  elc,  1679, 
pp.  18.  However,  1  do  not  find  these  indictments  borne  out  by  a  reference  to  the  manuscript 
Judicial  records  of  the  time  when  compared  with  those  of  earlier  and  later  periods. 


paganism. 


THE  COUNTRY  IN  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY   iii 

nor  order  in  their  divine  or  contumelious  service.'  ^     He  also  mentions 
the  barbarity  of  the  Scots  in  cutting  collops  out  of  living  bestial.^ 
The  people  generally  believed  that   spirits,  good   and  evil,  roamed  Belief  in 
everywhere,  persons  murdered  haunting  the  scene  of  their  dispatch.  '^'" "" 
For  this  reason,  according  to  Fountainhall,  five  men  were  executed 
and  hung  in  chains  at  Magus  Moor  to   '  expiate  and  appease  the 
Archbishop's  [Sharp]  ghost  who  was  there  murdered.'"     Ghosts  of 
the  dying  or  dead  appeared   to   their  friends,   as   Balbegno  did    to 
Middleton,  and  Claverhouse  to  Balcarres.*     Fairies  danced  round  the 
'  wirrikow ' ;  little  men  in  green  inhabited  the  knolls,  and  virile  spirits 
lurked  in  wells  and  streams.'^     Malcolm  Cameron — Calum  Mor  Nan 
Seilag — in  Kilmodan  was  wont  to  disperse  these  spirits  by  constant 
expectorations."      The   spittle   spell   was  in   widespread   use."      The 
Beltane  fire  was  lit  with  awe,  and  each  glowing  hearth  was  watched 
with  vestal  care  on   New   Year  morn,   lest  an  expired  fire  should 
presage  some  calamity.     The  Devil  was  a  real  personage,  able  to 
transfigure  and  transform  himself  into  the  shapes  of  animals,  persons, 
and  things.''     He  held  hilarious  court  with  wizards,  witches,  warlocks, 
crones  ('cailleaich  '),  till  jovial   Burns  drove  him  for  ever  from  Kirk 
Alloway.      Into  the  satanic  service  the  deluded  sold  themselves  in  a 
weird  ceremonial  in  order  to  purchase  the  vaunted  power  to  bless  and 
curse  their  fellow-creatures.       Even  saintly  Leighton  sent  to  doom 
these  covenanters  with  the  Devil.'-"     The  punishment  of  witchcraft— a  Witchcraft. 
legacy  from  the  Papists— was  as  much  insisted  upon  by  the  educated 
laity  and  gentry  as  by  the  ministers,  and  the  craze  decreased  during 
the  ascendency  of  the  Covenant.     The  soldiers  of  Cromwell  (1650) 
would  not  permit  the  torture  of  the  suspected  witches,   who  were 

'  A  Modern  Account,  etc.,  7,  8.  ^  Ibid.,  13. 

^  Decisions,  i.  62  (Nov.  10,  1679).  ■"  Klrkton,  67  note  ;  Sharpe,  Witchcraft,  170. 

^  Cf.  AUt  an  .Spiorad  in  Kilmodan  ;  the  Wishing  Well  at  St.  Blane's,  Bute. 
"  Maclnnes,  The  Kyles  of  Bute,  7. 

'  Presby.  Bookc  of  Kirkcaldy,  Sept.   10,  1640  :  Margaret  Lindsay  accused  of  'spitting  on 
a  bairne's  face  of  the  fallen  sickness.' 

*  Stevenson,  'A  Rare  Comforting  Cordial,'  etc.,  in  Select  Biog.  (Wodrow  Soc,  ii.  445); 
Fergusson,  Scottish  Social  Sketches,  etc.,  88-105. 

•  Presby.  Rec.  of  Dalkeith,  quoted  by  Butler,  Leighton,  223,  233. 


I  12 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Auspices  and 
portents. 


Public 
worship. 


probed  by  professional  '  prickers,'  iiung  up  by  their  thumbs  tied 
behind  their  backs,  whipped,  had  lighted  candles  put  to  their  soles, 
into  their  mouths,  and  upon  their  heads,  before  being  burned  to  ashes, 
drowned,  or  relegated  to  the  dungeon  to  die  of  their  wounds.'  With 
the  advent  of  Episcopacy  there  was  an  increase  of  witchcraft,  accord- 
ing to  the  urgent  petition  of  the  Earl  of  Haddington  to  the  Govern- 
ment in  1660."  Auspices  were  read  from  birds,  and  portents  from 
unusual  sights  in  earth  and  sky.  Some  '  uncanny '  persons  were 
credited  with  power  of  second-sight,  prophecy,  casting  'the  evil  eye,' 
and  glamoury.  The  hapless  Montrose  believed  in  astrology  ;  Rothes 
was  said  to  have  been  bewitched  by  Lady  Ann  Gordon ;  and 
Primate  Sharp,  it  was  reported,  met  his  death  while  carrying  in  a  box 
an  unavailinsr  talisman  beside  his  own  familiar— a  humble  bee.  The 
godly,  on  the  other  hand,  exhibited  their  intimacy  with  the  Most 
High  by  showing  'motions'  of  the  Spirit  which  agitated  them  into  a 
Pythonic  ecstasy.  Few  of  the  later  Covenanters  doubted  the  pro- 
phecies of  the  famous  Peden.  But  it  is  noteworthy  that  superstition 
of  an  offensive  character  lingered  longest  where  Roman  Catholicism 
and  Episcopal  Royalism  continued  to  resist  the  more  enlightening 
influences  of  the  faith,  as  expounded  by  the  rigid  Covenanters,  whose 
imaginations  were  of  the  most  ecstatic,  spiritual  nature. 

During  the  period  prior  to  1638,  the  public  worship  of  the  Church 
consisted  of  prayer,  reading  of  Scripture,  psalmody,  and  preaching. 
Public  and  private  catechising  was  not  neglected.  There  was  a  daily 
service  in  church  for  the  reading  of  prayers  and  of  Scripture.  In  the 
larger  centres  there  were  two  services  each  Sabbath,  and  on  that  day, 
generally  speaking,  the  first  bell  rang  at  seven  in  the  morning,  the 
second  at  eight,  and  the  third  at  nine.  The  congregation  assembled 
at  eight  to  hear  the  reader  in  the  '  latron '  (reader's  desk)  read  the 
common  prayers  from  The  Book  of  Co^mnon  Order,  lead  the  singing 
of  the  psalms,  with  the  '  conclusion  ' — '  Glorie  to  the  Father,'  etc.,  and 

'  Scot,  and  Common.,  368. 

-  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.,  App.  31.     The  printed  Records  of  the  Justiciary  Court  substantiate 
the  petition  (cf.  vol.  i.  pref.  xxi.-xxvii.,  2-8,  11,  13,  19,  20, 
58,  75,  104,  269  (Scot.  Hist.  Soc). 


24,  34.  121  ;  vol.  ii.  11,  17,  56,  57, 


THE  COUNTRY  IN  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY   113 

read  the  portions  of  Scripture  selected,  as  well  as  the  Decalogue 
and  the  Creed.  It  is  not  known  to  what  extent,  or  for  what  lensfth 
of  time,  Carswell's  translation  of  The  Book  of  Common  Order  [Foirm. 
na  nvrrnvidheadh,  1567)  was  used  in  the  Highlands.^  Besides  the 
reader,  there  was  in  many  churches  a  precentor  or  '  uptaker  of  the 
psalm.'  The  minister  entered  the  pulpit  at  nine  o'clock  after  the 
reader  concluded.     The  action  in  the  service  was  as  follows  : — 


A. 


B. 


''(i)   Prayer— confession    of  sin — read  to  people    kneeling 

and  uncovered. 
(2)  The    Psalm,    with    one    of  thirty-two   of  the    printed 

Doxologies  in  conclusion. 
'  (3)  Minister's  private  prayer  in  pulpit,  where  he  knelt. 

(4)  Sermon  to  people  (with  hats  on  their  heads). 

(5)  Minister's  prayer  for  the  whole  estate  of  Christ's 
Church,  either  read,  or  extemporised,  concluding 
with  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Creed. 

(6)  Psalm  with  Doxology. 

(7)  Benediction. 

The  service  lasted  about  an  hour  according  to  the  hour-glass,^  The  same 
procedure  was  observed  at  an  afternoon  service,  special  prayers  being 
introduced  as  occasion  required.  Children  of  twelve  were  admitted  to 
the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  In  1613  the  people,  fasting,  took 
the  Sacrament.^     Welsh's  Catechism  was  then  in  use  in  churches. 

The  spread  of  Brownism  and  the  influence  of  the  nonconformist 
ministers  expelled  by  the  prelates  of  Ireland  led  to  the  introduction 
of  innovations,  and  the  gradual  discarding  of  the  '  three  nocent 
ceremonies — Paternoster,  Gloria  Patri,  and  kneeling  in  the  pulpit.' 
Sitting  at  the  Communion  of  the  Lord's  Supper  was  also  reintroduced. 

'  A  copy  of  this  rare  work  was  sold  a  few  years  ago  for  over  £y>o. 

^  'It  is  ordenit  that  quhen  he  [David  Philp,  A.M.,  1617-32]  teitches,  that  he  turne  the 
glass,  quhen  he  goes  to  the  pulpit,  that  the  prayer,  psalme,  and  preitchings  be  all  endit 
within  the  hour,  under  the  pain  of  vis.,  viiid.' :  Kirk-Sess.  Rec.  Elgin,  14th  October  1621  ; 
Fasti,  v.  151.  For  the  innovation  of  interposing  the  singing  of  a  Psalm  between  the  reading 
and  exposition  of  the  chapter,  a  minister  was  presbyterially  censured  :  Presby.  Booke  of 
Kirkcaldy,  304.  ^  Row,  Blair,  6. 

VOL.  II.  P 


114 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Results  of 

Westminster 

Assembly. 


The  authorisation  of  the    Westminster  Directory,  which  was  in  the 
hands  of  Presbyteries  in  July  1645,  ^^d  to  'novations,'  which  Mon- 
trose   in    his    defence    declared    to    be    violations    of   the    National 
Covenant  for  which  he  had  taken  up  arms.^     One  early  result  of  the 
Westminster  Assembly  was   the   dropping   of  the   daily  service,   of 
private  prayer  on   entering  church,    of  the   printed   prayers,   of  the 
regular  reading  of  the  chapters,  and  of  the  Doxology.     The  uplifting 
of  the  collection  was  made  an  integral  part  of  the  service.     In  course  of 
time  the  Lord's  Prayer,  being  considered  formal,  was  also  omitted.    The 
exposition  of  a  chapter,  or  part  of  it,  developed  into  the  lecture  before 
sermon.     On  Sabbaths,  the  minister  thus  came  to  have  two  lectures 
and  two  sermons,   which    tended   to  make  worship   in   unventilated 
buildings  wearisome  afflictions  of  the  flesh.      On  a  week  day  another 
sermon  was  preached — in  some  parishes  two  days  were  set  apart  for 
Introduction    preaching — while  on  another,  catechising  took  place.-   Another  innova- 
ParaphraseT'     ^'^'^  '"  i65owas  the  discarding  of  the  old  Scottish  Psalm  Book,  in 
order  to  introduce  the  revised  edition  of  the  '  New  Paraphrase,'  by 
Francis  Rouse ;  and  this  poor  production,  rendered  more  obnoxious 
by  the  puerile  custom  of  the  precentor  reading  out  each  line  before 
he  sang  it,  resulted   in  the  deterioration  of  congregational  singing. 
Organs  were  no  longer  approved  of.     What  was  worse,  the  confusion 
and  bitterness  gendered  in  the  land  during  the  internecine  wars,  and 
the  deposition  of  so  many  pastors,  resulted  in  the  discontinuance  of 
the   Lord's   Supper  for  years  in  some  parishes ;   while  the  spiritual 
tone    of    the   masses    was    not    improved    by    the    example    of    the 
Cromwellian  soldiery,  who   frequently   converted    the   churches  into 
stables  and   barracks,    although  others,    of  the   type   of   Nehemiah 
Solsgrace,    on  occasion  doffed  their  weapons   of  war  in   the   pulpit 
before    beginning  their  holy  harangues.     According    to   a   contem- 
porary, a  fit  of  preaching  came  on  Cromwell  twice  a  day  like  a  fit  of 
ague.     All  these  innovations  tended  to  exalt  the  human  element  in 


'  Napier,  Memoirs,  i.  App.  L. 

-  John   Makgill,   in   Cupar,  in    1654  had  services  on   Sabbalh,  Tuesday,   and   Friday, 
catechised  two  days  in  town,  one  in  country,  besides  doing  other  duties:  Scott,  Fasti,  iv.  461. 


THE  COUNTRY  IN  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY      115 

the  service  at  the  expense  of  the  divine — the  topical  conceptions  of  innovations  in 
the  preacher  taking  the  place  of  the  two  chapters  ordered  to  be  read  l^^^es 
each  Sabbath,  of  the  inspiring  psalms,  of  the  essence  of  the  faith  con- 
centrated in  the  Creed.     The  national  idiom  changed.      Men  went  to 
hear  a  preacher — not  to  worship.     The  temple  had  lost  its  character. 

Presbytery  had  taken  root  in  Scotland,  and  all  the  efforts  of 
the  hierarchy  and  of  the  Carolan  government  could  not  dislodge  it. 
Hence  Sir  George  Mackenzie  in  his  Vindication  of  the  Government 
of  Charles  Second^  averred,  'The  Reader  will  be  astonished  when 
we  inform  him  that  the  way  of  Worship  in  our  Church  differed 
nothing  from  what  the  Presbyterians  themselves  practised  (except 
only,  that  we  used  the  Doxologie,  the  Lords  Prayer,  and  in  Baptism 
the  Creed,  all  which  they  rejected).  We  had  no  Ceremonies, 
Surplice,  Altars,  Cross  in  Baptisms,  nor  the  meanest  of  those  things 
which  would  be  allowed  in  England  by  the  Dissenters,  in  way  of 
Accomodation.'  Burnet,  when  minister  at  Saltoun,  East  Lothian, 
was  wont  to  use  the  Liturgy,  as  did  Principal  Monro  in  Edinburgh 
University,  and  some  curates  in  Ayrshire." 

Quakerism  spread  under  the  tolerant  regime  of  Cromwell,  but  '  dis- 
haunting  of  ordinances,  professing  quakaristrie,  and  resetting  persons  of 
that  sect '  became  a  serious  ecclesiastical  offence  visited  by  penalties.^ 

At  this  point  it  is  opportune  for  the  reader  to  consider  a  brief  The  gentlemen 
account  of  the  chief  personages  and  classes  whom  he  will  see  in  full  jV  ^  estora- 
perspective  upon  the  tragic  stage  during  the  '  Reign  of  Terror,'  now 
to  be  described.  A  mere  outline  of  the  lives,  principles,  and  practices 
of  these  unrestrained  profligates  in  high  places  ought  to  be  sufficient 
to  create  the  impression  that  the  chronic  state  of  rebellion  in  Scotland 
was  not  to  be  wondered  at,  was  more  than  justifiable,   was  indeed 

'  London,  1691,  p.  9. 

^  Crichton,  Mem.  of  Blackader,  104,  2nd  edit.,  note,  citing  authorities  :  Burnet  ;  Foxcroft, 
SuppL,  471  ;  Presby.  Inquisition,  27  (Lond.,  i6gi) ;  Cramond,  letter,  Scotsman,  29th  August 
1890  ;  Hewison,  letter,  Scotsman,  24th  May  1907  ;  Sage,  Case  of  the  Present  Afflicted  Clergy 
(Lond.,  1690),  Pref.  ;  Grub,  iii.  217.  Buniet,  however,  qualified  his  statement  of  the  practice 
thus  :  '  I  was  the  only  man  that  I  heard  of  in  Scotland  that  used  the  forms  of  the  common 
praier,  not  reading,  but  repeating  them'  :  Foxcroft,  SuppL,  471. 

^  Nicoll,  250;  Record  of  Exercise  of  Alford,  06  and  Index,  407  note. 


ii6  THE  COVENANTERS 

imperative,  and  that  the  untamable  preachers  and  men  of  the 
moss  hags — all  defects  duly  appraised — were  on  the  whole  patterns 
of  forbearance,  toleration,  and  humanity,  without  equals  in  similar 
circumstances.' 

According  to  Hallam,  '  The  Court  of  James  i.  was  incomparably 
the  most  disgraceful  scene  of  profligacy  which  this  country  has  ever 
witnessed  ;  equal  to  that  of  Charles  ii.  in  the  laxity  of  female  virtue, 
and  without  any  sort  of  parallel  in  some  other  respects.''' 

Charles  ii.  With    disgust   all    right-minded    Scots    thought    of   their   ruler, 

Charles  ii.,  sitting  on  his  far-off  throne,  odious,  vicious,  repulsive- 
looking  with  his  snuff-plugged  nose.  The  story  of  his  vulgar 
amours  was  a  commonplace.  No  Lely  could  refine  that  face,  no 
Clarendon  that  hideous  character.  Charles  was  absolutely  devoid  of 
friendship,  morality,  and  religion.  He  idolised  the  flesh  and  became 
a  victim  to  the  most  debased  passions.  He  justified  and  patronised 
the  worst  forms  of  carnality.  His  pessimism  led  him  to  believe  that  no 
one  did  good  except  for  self-interest.  A  secularist,  he  shook  off  Pres- 
byterianism  as  a  viper,  utilised  Episcopacy  as  the  readiest  political 
tool,  and  finally  put  on  Popery  as  a  comfortable  shroud  to  die  in.* 

James  II.  His  royal  brother,  James,  afterwards  King,  was  a  Bohemian  not  a 

whit  better  than  the  King,  only  less  audacious  in  his  amours,  since  he 
paid  more  painfully  for  them,  and  a  trifle  more  honest,  inasmuch  as 
he  sooner  owned  Popery,  which  was  the  prevailing  interest  at  Court.* 
From  the  standpoint  of  the  Puritans,  whom  he  hated,  he  is  not 
inaccurately  described  on  the  gravestone  of  James  Harkness,  in 
Dalgarno,  one  of  the  persecuted,  as  'that  Beist  the  Duke  of  York." 
All  readers  know  of  the  painted  seraglios  which  these  Defenders  of 
the  Faith  set  up  in  the  national  palaces,  and  of  the  vicious  cabals 
which  met  at  midnight  in  '  Mistress  Palmer's  Lodging.'  Macaulay's 
picture  of  that  Court,  as  lewd  as  Nero's,  suffices.*^  The  rhyming 
satirist,  who  chronicled  the  slaughter  of  the  London  beadle  by  '  The 

'  Cf.  pp.  4,  5  and  notes.  s  Const.  Hist.,  i.  332. 

3  Burnet,  Hist.,  ii.  466-74  ;  Foxcroft,  Suppl,  48-50,  142. 

*  Foxcroft,  50-2,  78.  6  Review  of  Hallam' s  Const.  Hist. 


THE  COUNTRY  IN  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY   117 

Three  Dukes,'  the  royal  bastards,  declared  the  impotence  of  justice 

thus  : — 

'  Yet  shall  Whitehall,  the  innocent,  the  good, 
See  these  men  dance  all  daubed  with  lace  and  blood. '^ 

Scotland  has  enough  to  answer  for.  In  Parliamentary  circles  there 
were  the  royal  Commissioner,  Middleton,  risen  from  a  pike  to  a 
peerage,  and  his  associates,  all  beggars  on  horseback,  living  in  a 
bacchanalian  paradise,  plundering  on  all  hands,  and  never  so 
deliriously  drunk  as  to  become  incapable  of  conducting  an  adminis- 
tration which  aggrandised  themselves  and  plunged  the  nation  into 
penury.  Greater  power  lay  in  the  hands  of  Lauderdale,  Secretary  Lauderdale. 
of  State,  an  uncouth  learned  savage,  about  to  develop  into  a  bare- 
faced adulterer,  toper,  and  inquisitor.  Contemporaries  left  an 
uninviting  portrait  of  this  great  but  disagreeable  statesman,  with  his 
red  head,  fiery  face,  spectacled  nose,  gross  cheeks,  thick  sensual 
lips,  and  blubbering  tongue,  speaking  vulgar  English  in  a  most 
offensive  manner,  with  his  hand  always  rifling  the  King's  snuff-box, 
and  his  cup  filled  with  a  disgusting  liquor  by  the  tricky  courtiers, 
who  wished  to  illustrate  his  incomparable  obsequiousness  to  the 
King."  We  shall  see  him  and  his  shameless  consort,  'the  Bess  of 
old  Noll,'  together  with  his  brother  Maitland  of  Hatton,  hectorino- 
and  plundering  Scotland.  Yet  Lauderdale  it  was  that  Sharp  and 
his  co-prelates  said  they  were  delighted  to  serve  as  the  saviour  of 
their  Church.  The  Duke  of  Hamilton  accused  Hatton  of  '  Injustice 
and  brutalety  palpable  to  all  persons.'^ 

In  John,    sixth   Earl  of  Rothes,    Lauderdale   had  an  accomplice  Rothes. 
who  rivalled  Silenus  at  the  cask  and  Faunus  in  the  indecent  oratifi- 
cation  of  every  base  appetite,  until  this  notorious  adulterer  was  'either 
always  sick  or  drunk.' ^     His  oaths  were  malefic  indeed,  if  they  were 
as  foully  mouthed  as  they  were  badly  spelled  in  his  extant  unique 

■  Poetns  on  Affairs  of  State,  i.  147. 

-  Ailesbury,  Memoirs,  i.  14.  >■  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  xi.  App.  vi.  151. 

*  Burnet,  i.  73,   186,   187  ;  ii.  310.     '  The  Earle  of  Rothes  is  put  in  the  castle  on  a  most 
shameful  occasion,'  adultery  with  Lady  Howard  :  Baillie,  Letters,  iii.  367,  an.  1658. 


ii8  THE  COVENANTERS 

Scandalous  letters.  The  editor  of  the  Lauderdale  Papers  concluded  that  '  with 
aristocracy.  Rothcs  extortlon  appears  to  have  been  the  only  object,  and  brutality 
the  only  method.''  The  Earl  of  Loudoun,  whose  early  piety  and 
promise  charmed  Samuel  Rutherford,  fell  into  adultery."  The  Duke 
of  Richmond  (Lennox)  was  immoral  and  profane."'  The  story  of 
Southesk  is  too  abominable  to  repeat.''  The  Earl  and  Countess  of 
Menteith  accused  each  other  of  adultery  and  bigamy  before  the  High 
Courts.''  The  story  ran  that  the  Earl  of  Eglinton,  condemned  to  the 
stool  of  repentance,  with  a  delightful  assurance  which  would  have 
charmed  the  Ayrshire  bard,  declined  to  sit  anywhere  else  afterwards, 
because  he  thought  it  the  best  seat  and  himself  the  best  man  in  the 
church.'^  It  is  not  recorded  what  Abercromby,  Balvaird,  Durie,  the 
third  Duke  of  Hamilton,  and  others  of  their  class  thought  of  their 
prominence  in  the  same  place.  Ross,"  Lindores,  Kinnear,  General 
James  Wemyss,  General  Dalyell,  Captain  Bruce,  and  many  others  of 
the  nobility  and  gentry  were  guilty  of  sins  of  the  flesh. ^  Christian 
Hamilton  was  beheaded  at  the  Cross  of  Edinburgh  in  November 
1679  for  killing  with  a  sword  James,  Lord  Forester,  who  in  drink 
criminally  assaulted  her.'*  Robertson  of  Athole  was  'an  incestuous 
and  excommunicate  person,'  and  escheated  by  Parliament.'"  The 
aristocracy  was  not  totally  vicious.  The  Earls  of  Kincardine  and 
Tweeddale  were  positively  good  ;  Crawford  was  indiscreet ;  Lome 
was  on  his  good  behaviour,  although  he  could  recommend  torture 
for  the  Whigs.  Ancram  was  a  man  'of  small  fortune,  and  of  no 
principles  either  as  to  religion  or  virtue,'  according  to  Burnet. '^  The 
heirs  to  Eglinton,  Murray,  and  Kenmure  were  wanton  lads.  The 
young  Earl  of  Leven  died  in   1664,  after  a  carouse  with  the  Earl  of 

>  Airy,  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  Pref.  xii.  -  Burnet,  i.  72  ;  Lament,  38. 

'  Row,  Blair,  420.  *  Burnet,  i.  406. 

'  Book  of  Adjournal,  4tli  August  1684.  "  Burnet,  i.  273  note. 

'  '  My  Lord  Ross,  a  good  young  youth,  as  was  supposed,  fallen  in  adulterie  with  his  child's 
nurse'  :  Baillie,  Letters,  iii.  366,  an.  1658. 

s  Baillie,  iii.  366  ;  Lamont,  10,  13,  18,  84  ;  Bimis  Papers  ;  Presby.  of  St.  Andrews  Minute 
Book.  "  Fountainhall,  Hist.  Notices,  i.  231,  232. 

'"  Balfour,  Annals,  iv.  207.     Lord  Kinnoul  died  of 'glengore'  in  1650:   Lamont,  17. 

"  Hist.,  ii.  29. 


THE  COUNTRY  IN  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY   119 

Dundee.     The  whole  of  society   was  infected  with   loose  principles, 
from  University  chairs  to  cot  houses.^ 

The  gentry  were  bankrupt  in  estate  as  well  as  in  morals,  and  the  Bankrupt 
persecution  of  the  thrifty  mercantile  and  agricultural  classes  became  ^^"  ^^' 
the  only  lucrative  business  to  which  they  could  turn  to  retrieve  their 
fortunes.  The  story  is  sickening,  and  it  throws  a  strange  sidelight 
on  the  national  struggle  to  read  how  the  nobles,  Annandale,  Airlie, 
Atholl,  Drumlanrig  and  others  were  '  dependent  on  fines  to  save 
their  fortunes.'  -  The  creditors  of  Annandale  stayed  his  bankruptcy 
by  giving  him  time  to  exact  fines  from  the  rebels.  It  was  easy 
getting  men  to  farm  the  wages  of  sin.  The  Duke  of  Hamilton 
became  chief  publican  in  due  course.  Queensberry  flourished  and 
built  Drumlanrig  Castle  when  he  was  in  office.  The  vultures  nested 
in  the  Halls  of  Justice,  and  the  Lord  Advocate  did  not  blush  to  fleece 
the  timorous.^  When  ruining  the  Dissenters  was  the  order  of  the 
day,  exactors  like  bankrupt  Carmichael  of  Easter  Thurston,  who  just 
escaped  the  squinting  eyes  of  Burly  at  Magus  Moor,  got  the  fines 
of  the  peasantry,  so  long  as  the  Commissioners  took  one-half  of  the 
plunder  of  landed  estates,  while  the  other  half  went  to  the  Crown.* 
Parasitism  became  infectious.  Hunger  for  land,  greed  of  money,  the 
coveting  of  movables  tainted  all  from  duke  to  dragoon.  Argyll 
plundered  Huntly's  estate  ;  Middleton  expected  Argyll's;  Lauderdale 
and  his  brother  Hatton  became  rich  by  everything  they  touched  ; 
Aberdeen  and  Queensberry  waited  for  the  ill-gotten  gains  the  coiner 
Hatton  had  to  disgorge  ;  Sharp  got  Inchaffray,  but  handed  it  over  to 
the  victors  of  Rullion  Green  ;  Dalyell  legally  obtained  Caldwell,  but 
illegally  seized  the  marriage  portion  of  its  lady  as  well;  Glencairn 
got  Dinmurchie ;  Perth  got  Melville's  lands ;  Drummond,  Claver- 
house,  and  Nithsdale  respectively  got  Kersland,  Freuch,  and 
Whyteside,  from  which  zealous  Covenanters  had  been  evicted. 
Lesser    officials    grabbed    what    they    could     manage    to    remove 

'  Baillie,  iii.  348,  284  ;  Lament,  35,  69. 

^  Rothes  to  Lauderdale  in  1666  :  Lauti.  Pa/>.,  i.  237,  257.  ^  Qmond,  i.  172. 

■*  Privy  Council  Warninl,  nth  March  1679;   Wodrow  MSS.,  xliii.  26. 


I20  THE  COVENANTERS 

unmolested.'     The  Treasury  was  in  the  hands  of  villains,  according  to 
Moray." 
Ruffians  of  The  biographer  of  the  Lord  Advocates  does  not  present  a  flatter- 

ing picture  of  the  politicians  and  lawyers  of  the  Restoration  period. 
He  depicts  cruel,  avaricious  ruffians.^  They  are  continu.illy  drunk, 
both  at  the  Council-table  and  at  home.  When  the  ghastly  shrunken 
head  of  Montrose  was  taken  down  for  burial,  the  Lord  Advocate 
gave  a  feast  in  honour  of  the  event,  and  one  of  the  guests  drank 
himself  to  death.  The  Council-chamber  reeked  like  a  charnel-house. 
The  air  was  tainted  with  the  smell  of  blood.  The  judges  in  a  circuit 
town  drank  the  Devil's  health,  at  midnight,  at  the  town's  cross. 
Further,  he  describes  the  Lord  Clerk-Register  as  'Sir  Archibald 
Primrose,  astute,  wary,  and  unscrupulous  ' ;  and  the  Lord  Advocate 
as  '  Fletcher,  the  "  Inquisitor-general  "  whose  cruelty  could  be  averted 
only  by  a  bribe.'*  Ermine  and  silk  were  soiled  with  mud  and  blood. 
Fletcher  fell  a  victim  to  his  own  rapacity  and  unscrupulousness,  and 
was  forced  to  resign,  14th  September  1664.  His  successor,  Sir  John 
Nisbet,  Lord  Dirleton,  was  no  more  immaculate  as  Lord  Advocate 
and  Judge,  and  being  accused  of  collusion  and  fraud  was  also 
compelled  to  resign  in  1677.  Omond  sums  up  his  character  thus: 
'  At  a  time  when  bad  men  were  common,  he  was  one  of  the  worst ; 
and  it  does  not  appear  that,  in  the  course  of  his  public  career,  he 
ever  did  one  deed  which  lightens  the  darkness  of  his  servile  and 
mercenary  life."'  Dirleton  was  succeeded  by  George  Mackenzie, 
who  deservedly  earned  the  nickname  'The  Bluidy  Mackenzie,'  upon 
whom  so  many  left  their  martyr  blood. 

These  legislators  did  not  lack  for  executors  and  executioners  to 
carry  out  their  designs  and  dooms.  The  noblest  of  birth  in  the  land 
lent  them  service.  Foreign  trade  in  war  was  dull,  and  many  blood- 
stained hands  idle  at  home  were  ready  to  draw  blades  for  pay. 
To  get  a  regiment  (and  the  chance  to  hold  up  the  pay),  a  troop,  a 
commission  of  any  sort,  a  collectorship  of  fines  or  of  imposts,  made 

'  For  later  grants,  cf.  postea ;  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  viii.  582. 

2  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  68.  »  Omond,  i.  170.  '  Ib:d.,  177.  ''  Ji'd.,  186,  198. 


THE  COUNTRY  IN  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY      121 

the  lucky  one  a  soldier  of  fortune  in  a  true  sense.     We  mark  Thomas 

Dalyell  of  Binns,  fresh  from  the  Polish  wars,  dubbed  '  the  Muscovy  'The  Muscovy 

Beast '  because  he  was  so  boorish,  brutal,  and  overbearing.     '  Dalyell 

is  a   rough   man,'    wrote   Burnet  to   Sheldon,    '  but  of  incomparable 

loyalty  and  integrity,  a  faithful  friend  to  all  that  serve  the  King  or 

Church.' >     In  his  wild  youth  a  brawler  on  the  streets  of  Linlithgow; 

he  brawls  on  for  years  for  blood  and  booty,  inventing  war  scares  to 

frighten  the  Government.     He  also  drinks  'hoolie  and  fairly,'  and, 

in  his  cups  and  out,   howls   for  blood,    for   liberty  to  roast,  hang, 

exterminate  the  Covenanters.^     Hackston  of  Rathillet,  in  an  extant 

letter,    records   an  instance  of  Dalyell's  brutality  at   Lanark,    where 

he   even    threatened    to   roast    Hackston,    then   suffering   from    his 

untended  wounds  got  at  Ayrsmoss."     Dalyell,  who  was  never  married, 

and   left  his    property  to  his    illegitimate  children,   was   banned  by 

Cargill  in  the  Torwood  Excommunication  'for  his  lewd  and  impious 

life,  led  in  adultery  and  uncleanness  from  his  youth,  with  a  contempt 

of  marriage.'^       On    the    field    Dalyell    and   Drummond    acted    like 

bandits.'^     Sir    William    Drummond,    Dalyell's    comrade   on    foreign 

fields,  exhibited  a  rapacity  which  brought  him  under  suspicion  and 

into  prison  as  a  fomenter  of  rebellion.''     Two  prime  hacksters,  before 

the  gory  days  of  Claverhouse  and  Lag,  were  Sir  William  Ballantine 

and  Sir  James  Turner.     The  memory  of  the  atrocities  committed  by  Sir  James 

these  licensed  bandits  has  never  died  out.     A  Galloway  minister  at 

the  time   informed  Sir  Robert  Moray  that  '  Turner  was  a  saint  to 

Balantine.''      For    beggaring   the   westlands    by   their   unparalleled 

extortions  and  cruelties  both  saint  and  sinner  were  dismissed  by  the 

Government.       Burnet's    true    portrait    of    the   mercenary    Turner, 

punctilious  only  in  obeying  his  orders,  and  happy  in  his  cups,  is  not 

pleasing,  and  explains  the  hatred  of  the  peasantry,  who  nicknamed 

Turner  '  Bloody  Bite-the-Sheep."* 

'  Aug.  9,  1667  :  Laud.  Pap.,  u.  xlvi.  App. 

'  Linlithgow  Burgh  Records,  July  1639  ;  Laud.  Pap.,  q.v.       '  Wodrow,  Hist.,  iii.  219  note. 
*  Cloud  of  Witnesses,  510,  Thomson's  edit.  ;  Binns  Family  Papers. 

'  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  65.  «  Row,  Blair,  552.  "  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  83. 

'  Burnet,  i.  378,  440.     Moray  writing  to  Lauderdale  corroborates  Burnet  ;  cf.  Laud.  Pap., 
ii.  65,  82,  83.     Uefoe,  Memoirs,  208  :  'This  butcher,  for  such  he  was  rather  than  a  soldier.' 

VOL.  IL  tj 


122 


THE  COVENANTERS 


John  Graham 
ofCIaverhouse. 


Carnal 

Carolan 

cavaliers. 


Of  the  same  militant  and  accipitrine  order  was  John  Graham  of 
Claverhouse,  a  greedy  rather  than  a  needy  soldier,  anxious  to  be 
famous  like  his  idol  and  kinsman,  James,  Marquis  of  Montrose,  and 
also  to  found  a  family.  With  this  itch  for  land  and  honours  on  him, 
Graham  chaffered  for  the  title  of  Menteith,  sighed  for  its  fair  heiress, 
Eleanor  Graham,  swore  a  dragoon's  oath  as  to  his  pure  love,  lied  to 
Oueensberry,  to  whom  he  often  clamoured  for  '  movabilles,'  and  never 
lost  the  main  chance  to  promote  himself,  although  his  track  was 
stained  with  blood.*  Oueensberry  accused  him  of  upholding  the 
fines  and  made  him  disgorge ;  he  retaliated  by  accusing  Queens- 
berry's  brother  of  defrauding  the  soldiery."  The  dexterity  which 
Claverhouse  displayed  in  keeping  himself  out  of  the  clutches  of  jealous 
opponents  led  contemporaries  to  conclude  that  he  was  a  noble 
specimen  of  the  swashbucklers  of  his  day  ;  so  Burnet  sums  up  his 
character  thus — 'a  proud  and  passionate  man,  though  in  all  other 
respects  a  man  of  virtue  and  probity.'^ 

To  say  that  Claverhouse  was  better  than  his  comrades  is  faint 
praise  indeed,  when  we  mark  his  associates  in  butchery  with  which, 
as  soldiers,  they  had  less  to  do  than  Dalyell  and  Claverhouse,  who 
were  most  active  members  of  the  Privy  Council.  For  example, 
Captain  Andrew  Bruce  of  Earlshall,  whose  only  epitaph  is  found  on 
martyrs'  tombs,  was  a  vile  specimen  of  the  Carolan  cavalier.  The 
Kirk-session  of  Leuchars  charged  him  with  stealing  the  endowments 
left  by  Alexander  Henderson  to  the  parish  school  ;  and  the  Presbytery 
of  St.  Andrews  pressed  a  worse  indictment — stealing  the  virtue  of 
one  of  his  own  household.'  With  some  satisfaction  the  chronicler 
of  Coltness  recorded  that  Irvine  of  Bonshaw,  the  captor  of  Cargill, 
'  in  a  drucken  quarrel  at  Lanrick  was  stabbed  to  death  on  a  dunghill 
by  one  of  his  own  gange  .  a  proper  exit  for  such  a  blood-hound.'' 
'  Black  Pate  '  Graham  of  Inchbrakie,  kinsman  of  Claverhouse,  already 
referred  to,  '  satisfied  '  the  Church  for  sins  of  the  flesh."    The  cruelties 

'  Book  ofMenieit/i,  ii.  197  ;  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  XV.  viii.  266,  267,  276. 

''  Tarry,  John  Graham  of  Clavcrhnusc,  182,  188.  '  Foxcroft.  StippL,  305. 

*  Leuchars  Kirk-scss.  Rec,  vol.  i.  ;  St.  And.  /'res.  Ret:,  iv.  151. 

^  Coltness  Collections,  76.  "  Page  ;  note. 


JUHN  GRAHAM   OF  CLAVERHOUSE  -  VISCOUNT   DUNDEE. 


THE  COUNTRY  IN  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY   123 

of  Grierson  of  Lag,  and  the  oppressions  of  other  persecutors,  stand  on 
record.     Defoe   gives   an    instance  of  a  humane   officer   protesting 
against    the    brutal    conduct    of  his    fellows.'     Claverhouse,    in    hisThctoieof 
peculiar  frenzy,  desired  his  countrymen   to  think  well   of  him  as  a    *^ 
sacrificial  '  cleanser ' — the  chief  of  a  new  Order  of  Religious,  a  just 
Caiaphas  clad  in  iron  jack  and  '  scull ' — at  the  national  altar  slaying 
Whigs  to  stay  the  plague  of  Whiggery  from  destroying  other  inno- 
cents.    With  such  rude  and  lewd  mercenaries  at  the  head  of  regiments 
and  troops  of  soldiers  paid  sixpence  a  day — when  their  officers  did 
not  defraud  them  of  their  pay — there  was  little  likelihood  of  any  other 
state  of  matters  than  that  described  by  contemporary  chroniclers  and 
clerks  of  court— namely,  abuse  of  the  people,  uniformed  aristocrats 
stealing   from    poor   packmen   on    the   roads,   justices    fleecing    the 
defenceless,   and   high  officials  tampering  with   the  coinage.     There 
was  ample  justification  for  Stewart  declaring  that  'worse  than  bears 
or  tigers  were  let  loose  upon  innocent  families.'" 

The  Church  was  in  a  worse  condition  than   the  State.     Sheldon  Archbishop 
was  Primate  in  England,  Sharp  in  Scotland.    Their  accomplishments 
can  be  cited  in  a  word.     Sheldon  gave  his  Church  the  Act  of  Uni- 


& 


formity,  Sharp  gave  his — '  the  boots.'  According  to  Burnet,  Sheldon 
'  seemed  to  have  no  great  sense  of  religion  nor  of  the  true  concerns  of 
the  Church,  of  which  he  spoke  commonly  rather  as  of  a  matter  of 
policy  than  of  conscience.'^ 

Sharp   appears   in    his   true  colours,   verily  the    '  base,   clattering  Archi.uhop 
claw-back  '  of  his  contemporaries  ;  to  the  Church,  'a  knave/wr  j««^'; 
to  his  friends,  a  spy  ;  to  his  foes,  a  persecutor ;  to  his  peers,  a  caitiff, 
whom  they  used  but  despised  :  in  fine,  one  of  the  meanest  Scots  that 
ever  wore  a  holy  robe.' 

A  policy  compromising,  soothing,  compassionate,  did  not  seem  to  Character  of 
appeal  to  the  better  instincts  left  in  Sharp.     We  have  no  mention     ^'^' 
of  him  remonstrating  with  the  flagitious   men  of  the  age,   as  out- 
spoken Wariston  and  Guthrie  did  with  Charles  11.,  and  as  even  the 

'  Memoirs,  281.  -  CoUness  Collections,  76. 

^  Foxcroft,  Suppl.,  drj.  ^  Airy,  Laud.  Pap.,  Introd.  x. 


124  THE  COVENANTERS 

latter  and  Richard  Baxter  did  with  tippling  Lauderdale.  We  hear 
no  voice  lifted  up  against  the  recurrent  tragedies  of  his  time  ;  no 
piteous  appeal  for  the  victims  of  the  rope  and  axe,  for  the  broken  in 
boots  and  the  tortured  by  thumbscrews  ;  no  effort  to  redeem  the  men, 
mothers,  and  babes  who,  often  forgotten  altogether,  lay  starved  and 
rotting  in  noisome  tolbooths  ;  and  no  mercy  for  the  gifted  pastors 
who  were  held  in  unholy  and  unwholesome  ward. 

Like  Laud,  he  had  as  little  sympathy  with  the  sacrifices  of  the 
lawgivers  as  with  the  victims  of  the  lawless.  The  weight  of  his  hand 
and  the  strength  of  his  will  was  in  every  blow  with  which  the  hang- 
man drove  the  wedges  home  in  the  torture  vaults  of  the  Parliament 
House.  If  Sharp  did  not  keep  the  pardons  back,  for  which  he 
was  blamed,^  he  pressed  forward  no  petitions  for  mercy.  An  infinite 
charity  could  not  veneer  the  character  of  Sharp  with  a  semblance 
of  humanity. 

Others    of    the    prelates    were    exceedingly    carnal.     Archbishop 
Alexander  Burnet  was  not  secretive  enough  with  his  illicit  loves  to 
please  his  clerical  namesake." 
Bishop  Paterson,   Bishop  of  Galloway,  signalised  his  episcopate  among 

the  wild  Whigs  by  inventing  or  re-introducing  the  thumbscrews.* 
'  This  Paterson  was  one  of  the  most  notorious  liars  in  his  time,  and 
vicious,  base,  and  loose  liver.'*  Paterson  was  'The  Bishop  Band- 
strings  '  whose  obscenity  is  lashed  by  George  Ridpath.^  He  was 
dismissed  from  the  Privy  Council  in  1684  for  obtaining  a  pension  on 
false  pretences  and  keeping  churches  vacant,  so  that,  as  patron,  he 
might  draw  the  stipends  for  his  own  pocket.* 

Bishop  FairfuU,  a  teller  of  '  merry  tales  '  which  disgusted  Leighton, 
was  'scarce  free  of  scandal.' '  Even  the  nervous  Leighton  approved 
of  exterminating  rebel  Whigs. 

'  Row,  Blair,  504.  -  Burnet,  i.  371  :  'He  kept  his  mistresses  very  avowedly.' 

'  Mackail  to  Adams,  i6th  November  1678  ;  Cai.  ^fatc  Pap.,  Charles  11.,  408. 

*  Row,  Blair,  542. 

*  An  Answer  to  the  Scotch  Presbyterian  Eloquence,  87. 

"  Hist.  Observes,  133.  ^  Burnet,  i.  238  ;  Foxcroft,  SuppL,  16. 


THE  COUNTRY  IN  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY       125 
The    Episcopal    incumbents   who   dispossessed    the    Presbyterian  character  of 

,,  ,  .  the  Episcopal 

pastors  were,  generally  speaking,  clergy. 

'Hireling  wolves  whose  gospel  is  their  maw.' 

This  terrible  indictment  is  endorsed  by  friends  and  foes  alike.  Bishop 
Gilbert  Burnet  designated  the  Episcopal  clergy  '  a  disgrace  to  orders,' 
and  '  dregs  and  refuse.'  The  Earl  of  Tweeddale,  in  his  correspondence 
with  Lauderdale  in  1670,  corroborated  what  the  authors  o{  Naphtali 
and  A  Hind  Let  Loose  called  them — 'scatterers  and  devourers,  not 
pastors  of  the  flock.' ^  Even  the  bibulous  Turner  confessed  his  shame 
at  serving  such  '  debauched  and  worthless '  creatures,  a  squeamishness 
which,  incredible  to  tell,  also  overcame  the  bloodthirsty  Dalyell." 

Gilbert  Burnet's  verdicts  and  generalisations  were  founded  on 
sufficient  data  and  personal  experience  of  the  men  and  times.  Early 
in  1666,  then  the  young  minister  of  Saltoun,  he  issued  A  Memorial  o/^'^t'^--^'^ 
Diverse  Grievances  and  Abuses  in  this  Church,  copies  of  which  he 
sent  to  some  of  the  bishops.^  He  animadverted  severely  on  the  evils 
of  the  time,  the  corruptions  of  the  clergy,  and  the  vices  of  the  gentry 
and  the  masses.  He  accused  the  prelates  of  being  non-resident, 
seldom  preaching,  becoming  politicians,  acting  with  intolerance  and 
pride,  and  sacrilegiously  peculating  Church  property.  He  blamed 
many  of  the  regular  and  indulged  clergy  for  Simoniacal  practices, 
entering  the  Church  for  gain,  for  being  haughty,  worldly-minded 
frequenters  of  taverns,  who  worried  the  people  with  '  long  preach- 
ments'  of  'mean  stuff,'  neglected  the  Communion,  made  dull,  dis- 
orderly prayers,  and  gave  out  a  few  lines  of  psalms  to  '  slow,  long 
tunes.'  He  timed  the  downfall  of  the  masses  to  the  advent  of  the 
bishops  :  '  At  your  coming  in  there  hath  been  a  deluge  of  wickedness, 
that  hath  almost  quite  overrtowen  the  land ;  scoffing  at  religion, 
swearing,  drunkenness,  and  uncleanness  can  not  but  meet  you  where 
ever  yow  are.'  For  this  plain  speaking  the  young  minister  barely 
escaped  deposition  on  the  motion  of  Sharp  himself 

'  Liiud.  Paf).,  ii.  207.  -  Burnet,  i.  426.  ^  Misc.  Scot.  Hist.,  ii.  340-58. 

*  Burnet,  Hist.,  i.  387-9  ;  Suppl.,  472;  Clarke  and  Foxcroft,  A  Life  of  Gilbert  Burnet, 
62-8  (Cambridge,  1907). 


126  THE  COVENANTERS 

Character  of  On  the   Other  hand,   the  outed   ministers  and   evicted   rebels  no 

clergy.  doubt  retained  a  large  portion  of  the  old  Adam  while  on  their  wet 

and  weary  wanderings  ever  facing  death  ;  and  their  freedom  from  the 
spirit  and  practice  of  revenge  would  have  testified  to  a  special 
accession  of  supernatural  power.  We  shall  find  one  exasperated 
'  Stickit  Minister,'  James  Mitchell,  drawing  a  bad  shot  at  Archbishop 
Sharp  ;  another  pietist,  Skene,  justifying  the  poisoning  of  the  balls  of 
his  blunderbuss  ;  the  hunters  of  merciless  Carmichael  murderously 
grounding  the  very  Primate  on  Magus  Moor  ;  and  a  few  cases  of  the 
shedding  of  the  blood  of  soldiers,  curates,  and  informers,  in  open  fray, 
midnight  raids,  and  tavern  brawls  ;  but  these  indefensible  acts,  even 
were  all  reckoned  to  be  blots  on  the  fair  escutcheon  of  the  Covenant, 
are  out  of  all  ratio  to  the  bloodshed  and  excesses  laid  to  the  account 
of  the  ruthless  suppressors  o(  the  Covenanters.  Bearing  in  mind  the 
rudeness  of  the  age,  the  illegal  acts  of  the  King  and  his  subordinates, 
and  the  provocation  received,  one  is  astonished  that  retaliation  was 
not  oftener  resorted  to,  that  offences  were  so  infrequent,  and  that  the 
persecuted  exhibited  so  much  Christian  restraint.  There  is  scarcely 
Corrupt  rulers,  a  parallel  to  it.  Rulers  who  demand  good  subjects  must  afford 
good  examples.  Charles  ii.,  Buckingham,  and  Lauderdale  would 
have  corrupted  a  '  Pagan  suckled  in  a  creed  outworn.'  Their  in- 
famous associates  appear  more  like  the  flowers  of  T/te  Newgate 
Calendar  than  the  responsible  governors  of  a  civilised  state  and 
supporters  of  a  Christian  Church.  The  modern  detractor  of  the 
Covenanters  and  eulogiser  of  their  oppressors,  who  calls  such  men  his 
'  cheerful  friends,'  keeps  strange  company  among  the  dead.*  We 
shall  see  these  votaries  of  Vice  sitting  at  the  fountainhead  of  every 
purifying  stream  that  (lowed  through  Scottish  life,  save  one,  and 
pouring  in  their  vile  poison,  which  could  not  fail  to  make  a  nauseous 
taste  in  the  mouths  of  what  poor  clergy  and  citizens  were  left  in  the 
miserable  land.  The  stream  of  influence  that  welled  out  of  tTie 
Covenant  they  were  not  allowed  to  vitiate.  The  struggle  was  not 
for  a  form  of  Church  government  merely,  for  the  maintenance  of  the 

'  Lang,  Hist,  of  Scot.,  iii.  J05. 


THE  COUNTRY  IN  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY   127 

nostrums  of  illiterate  fanatics,  or  for  the  justification  of  obstinate  dema- 
gogiies.  The  fight  was  for  freedom,  morality,  virtue,  and  religion.  No  Aims  of 
candid  student  can  evade  the  fact  that  agitators  like  Guthrie,  Cargill,  agitators. 
Cameron,  and  Renwick,  and  fighters  like  Hamilton,  Balfour,  Hackston, 
Paton  and  others,  in  order  to  save  their  country,  families,  and 
innocents,  from  corrupters,  seducers,  and  destroyers,  resisted  unto 
blood  that  Government,  which  they  considered  to  be  an  agency 
of  Satan.  These  purists  of  the  Covenant,  at  least,  do  not  figure  in 
the  records  of  scandal.  Yet  because  the  incorruptible  ministers 
manfully  denounced  those  Royalist  scapegraces,  and  maintained  a 
high  standard  of  morality  and  religion,  they  have  been  frequently 
discredited  by  those  who  are  ignorant  of  the  vicious  environ- 
ments in  which  they  contended.  In  these  dark  strata  were  being 
generated  the  disturbing  movements  which  enflamed  a  once  peaceable 
community.  The  Presbyterian  ministers,  by  their  honest  ministries, 
pure  lives,  and  creditable  writings,  form  a  contrast  to  other  leaders  of 
this  epoch,  and  these  attainments  rightly  gained  for  them  the  esteem 
in  which  the  populace  generally  held  them.  According  to  Burnet, 
although  they  were  '  a  sour  and  supercilious  people,  their  faults  were 
not  so  conspicuous.'  Our  researches  prove  that  their  antagonists 
very  seldom  'streaked  honey  in  their  mouths.'  An  impartial  account 
of  the  lives  of  the  persecutors  will  always  form  a  sufficiently  black 
framework  wherein  to  set  the  picture  of  many  saintly  lives  offered 
for  Christ's  Kingdom,  Crown,  and  Covenants.* 

'  For  an  account  of  the  literary  men  living  between  1625  and  1690,  and  of  their  works,  see 
Appendix  i.  in  this  volume. 


128  THE  COVENANTERS 


CHAPTER    XXII 

RECONSTRUCTION    OF    THE   CHURCH 

Various  parties  The  plot  was  now  laid  for  the  final  assault  on  Scottish  liberties  and 
;I!  ,lf,  ^"        for  the  realisation  of  the  dream  of  the  Stuart  kinos  of  Britain.     The 

ID    lOUI.  O 

times  were  auspicious.  The  populace  was  tired  of  a  rigid  religion 
which  conferred  no  temporal  benefits  ;  the  gentry,  bankrupt,  servile, 
and  growing  habituated  to  English  manners  and  customs,  hung 
around  the  Commissioner's  throne  clamouring  for  ratifications  of  all 
sorts,  knowing  that  to  oppose  the  Crown  was  to  frustrate  their  own 
designs  ;  while  the  clergy  were  divided  into  two  main  classes — true- 
blue  Presbyterians  who  saw  a  jailer  haunting  every  church,  and  a 
party  who  were  of  the  opinion  of  Robert  Leighton,  that  the  external 
apparatus  of  the  faith  was  of  little  importance  so  long  as  the  faith 
itself  was  professed,  some  even  approving  of  the  principle  by  which 
Gavin  Young,  minister  of  Ruthwell,  held  his  charge  happily  through 
all  the  changes  between  1617  and  1671,  and  thus  expressed  by  him  : 
'  Wha  wad  quarrel  wi'  their  brose  for  a  mote  in  them  ? ' 

Shortly  after  the  Parliament  of  1661  began  its  reconstructive  work, 
the  leaders  of  the  Church  in  Edinburgh  pointed  out  to  Middleton  that 
some  of  the  new  Rescissory  Acts  abrogated  statutes  legalising  the 
Covenants  and  Westminster  Standards,  and  also  other  Acts  enumer- 
ating indictable  offences,  and  they  overtured  Parliament  to  renew 
these  indispensable  laws.'  The  Presbytery  of  Edinburgh  sent  a 
Committee  to  Middleton  to  appeal  to  him  to  constrain  the  legislature 
to  delay  considering  a  statute  so  revolutionary  as  the  Rescissory  Act 
was.     Middleton  politely  cajoled  the  deputation  until  he  got  time  to 

'  Wodrow,  i.  1 10. 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  129 

have  the  statute  passed.  Professor  David  Dickson,  also  sent  to  Clerical  op- 
remonstrate,  was  cavalierly  received  and  told  by  the  Commissioner  reconstnjction 
that  he  was  not  afraid  of  papers  by  ministers,  a  remark  which  drew  °f  Church, 
from  Dickson  the  biting  retort — '  he  well  knew  his  Grace  was  no 
coward  since  the  Bridge  of  Dee.'  Impolitic  then  was  this  rejoinder, 
which  raked  up  memories  of  the  time  when  Middleton  fought  for  the 
Covenant.  Middleton  was  not  to  be  moved.  The  ministers  next 
addressed  Lauderdale,  whose  love  to  Mother-Church  they  praised, 
hoping  through  his  intervention  with  the  King  to  have  the  incoming 
tide  turned  back  by  means  of  a  General  Assembly,  which  they  desired 
to  be  convened  for  the  settlement  of  peace.  Lauderdale,  too,  was  a 
broken  reed.  No  longer  an  advocate  for  Covenants,  he  now  viewed 
Presbyterianism  as  a  temporary  expedient.  Besides,  this  statesman 
had  a  correspondent  in  Sharp,  who  disavowed  the  resolutions  of 
Douglas,  Dickson,  and  Wood,  and  pressed  a  conjunction  of  Lauderdale 
and  Middleton  'for  good  to  poor  Scotland,'  while  he  himself  in 
hypocrisy  prayed  :  '  Let  me  bear  the  punishment  maybe  intended  for 
Mr.  Guthrie,  who  hath  made  the  frame  of  our  religion  heer  to  be  nothing 
else  but  a  contexture  of  treason  and  sedition.' '  The  King  was  person- 
ally indifferent,  except  to  the  democratic  aspect  of  the  Church  question. 

In  April  the  Synod  of  Glasgow  and  Ayr  met  and  considered  the 
situation.  William  Guthrie,  minister  of  Fenwick,  failed  to  persuade  Guthrie  of 
all  his  brethren  to  transmit  a  suitable  address  to  the  Crown  which  he  ^"^^"^  ' 
had  prepared  ;  dissent  on  the  ground  of  inexpediency  and  inoppor- 
tuneness  being  expressed  by  James  Hamilton,  Cambusnethan  ;  Robert 
Wallace,  Barnweill ;  and  James  Ramsay,  Linlithgow  (representative 
from  Lothian),  afterwards  the  Bishops  of  Galloway,  the  Isles,  and 
Dunblane  respectively.  A  milder  declaration,  emphasising  adherence 
to  Presbyterianism,  was  unanimously  agreed  to,  even  by  the  Episcopal 
dissentients.  They  adjourned  this  meeting,  and  on  assembling  again 
found  themselves  proclaimed  as  an  illegal  convocation. 

The  Synod  of  Fife   also  met  to  prepare  a  petition  craving  the  Synod  of  Fife, 
Commissioner  to  have  an  Act  passed  establishing  the  Scots  Church,  ^"  *  ^"  ' 

'  Sharp  to  Lauderdale,  25th  April  1661  :  Laitig  MSS.,  784. 
VOL.   II.  R 


I30 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Synod  of 
Dumfries 
dissolved. 


Erastianism 
of  Aberdeen 
Synod. 


Reformed  and  Presbyterian,  and  to  draw  up  a  pastoral  admonition 
suitable  in  the  crisis.  They  had  passed  from  the  first  business  to  the 
second  when  Rothes  rose,  and,  in  the  King's  name,  ordered  them  to 
desist  and  disperse.  Taken  by  surprise,  the  Synod  broke  up  without 
a  protest. 

In  a  similar  manner  the  Earls  of  Queensberry  and  Hartfell,  in 
sweet  revenge  for  their  unforgotten  imprisonment,  dissolved  the 
Synod  of  Dumfries,  which  agreed  to  an  Act  deposing  compilers.  The 
Earl  of  Galloway  dispersed  the  Synod  of  Galloway,  which  had 
prepared  a  prolix,  wild,  Whig  manifesto  in  favour  of  Covenants  and 
uniformity,  the  moderator  duly  protesting  against  this  intrusion  of 
Galloway.  The  Earl  of  Callendar  and  Sir  Archibald  Stirling  of 
Garden  broke  up  the  Synod  of  Lothian  and  Tweeddale.  This  Synod 
purged  itself  of  several  members  of  the  party  of  Protesters,'  but 
Callendar's  request  that  the  Synod  should  re-introduce  the  old 
customs  of  Scripture  reading,  reciting  the  Lord's  Prayer,  singing 
'  Glore  to  the  Father,'  and  saying  the  Creed  in  baptism,  was 
refused." 

In  the  Synod  of  Ross,  Thomas  Hog,  minister  at  Kiltearn,  and 
James  Eraser  of  Ling,  elder,  were  challenged  to  disown  the  Protesta- 
tion, and,  on  their  refusal.  Hog  was  deposed  and  Eraser  was  suspended 
from  the  eldership. 

The  Synod  of  Aberdeen  exhibited  the  powerful  influence  exer- 
cised on  the  ministry  of  the  north  by  the  Aberdeen  doctors.  This 
Synod  acquiesced  in  the  recent  statutes,  and  asked  the  legislature  to 
petition  the  King  to  settle  the  affairs  of  the  Church  according  to  his 
own  conception  of  the  warrant  of  Scripture,  the  example  of  the  early 
Church,  and  his  own  sense  of  the  fitness  of  things.  Never  had 
monarchy  such  champions  of  its  divine  prerogative  as  these  ecclesi- 
astics by  the  Bridge  of  Dee,  who  now  showed  that  they  had 
recovered  from  that  '  rigidity '  resulting  from  the  coercive  and  well- 


'  Livingstone  of  Biggar,  Greig  of  .Skirling,  Porteoiis  of  Covington,  Donaldson  of 
Dolphinton,  also  Hall  of  Kirkliston.  At  the  same  time  Weir  of  Linlithgow  and  Creighton 
of  Bathgate  were  deprived.  '  Grub,  iii.  i8o. 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  131 

paid  efforts  of  Andrew  Cant  and  his  associates.'  Burnet,  who  was 
present  at  this  meeting,  records  that  he  heard  one  of  its  members 
say  '  that  no  man  could  decently  oppose  those  words,  since  by  that  he 
would  insinuate  that  he  thought  presbytery  was  not  conform  to  these ' 
— the  Word  of  God  and  the  practice  of  the  primitive  Church.  Thus 
even  Presbyterians  were  craftily  drawn  into  supporting  a  motion  for 
this  address  to  the  Commissioner.'^ 

One  result  of  the  meeting  of  the  Scots  councillors  in  London  was  New  church 
the  instruction  given  to  Lauderdale  and  Sharp  to  draft  and  dispatch  '^^'^  * '°"' 
to  Middleton  a  proclamation  on  Church  affairs,  which  was  duly  issued 
on  loth  June.^  According  to  Sharp,  it  was  Hyde's  '  present  expedient ' 
until  the  time  was  ripe  for  that  final  rescript  of  which  Middleton  was 
expectant.*  It  was  a  cunningly  devised  document  calling  attention 
to  the  recent  statute  of  28th  March,  in  which  it  was  resolved  to 
maintain  the  Church  as  it  was  established  by  James,  and  Charles  i., 
and  continuing  the  same  '  in  the  meantime  '  until  the  King  had  secured 
it  in  'a  frame  as  shall  be  agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God  most  suit- 
able to  monarchical  government,  and  most  complying  with  the  public 
peace  and  quiet  of  the  kingdom.' 

This  letter  to  Middleton  is  worth  quoting  to  show  the  progress  Sharp's  pro- 
Sharp  had  made  in  his  defection  since  he  wrote  to  his  friend  f'^^^ '" 
Drummond  denying  the  truth  of  the  whispers  concerning  his  treachery. 
On  19th  March  he  wrote  :  '  No  person  heer  or  with  you  can  say  with- 
out injuring  of  me  that  Ever  I  spoke  or  cooperated  for  introducing 
a  change.'  Two  days  later  he  declares  :  '  But  if  a  change  come,  I 
make  no  question  it  will  be  grievous  and  bring  on  suffering  upon  many 
honest  men,  in  which  I  would  be  very  loath  to  have  any  hand.' 
Rather  than  witness  the  confusion  he  would  change  his  country  and 
breathe  a  freer  air,  he  declared.^  In  the  interval  between  the  opening 
of  Parliament  and  his  journey  to  London,  early  in  May,  Sharp  had 
been  chagrined  to  see  the  Church  ignored  in  the  making  of  Acts  bearing 

'  Cant  was  awarded  /2000  for  his  labours  in  the  north. 

^  Burnet,  i.  21S  ;  Grub,  iii.  1S2.  ^  Aldis,  Lis/,  1713  ;  Wodrow,  i.  151. 

*  Sharp  to  Middleton,  21st  May  :  Lait/i.  Pap.,  ii.  App.  Ixxviii.  '  //'it/.,  i.  S9. 


r.l2 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Letter  of 
Sharp  to 
Middleton, 
May  i66i. 


Middleton's 
report  to  the 
KinE. 


on  her  welfare,  but  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  this  solicitude  for 
the  enslaved  Scots  Church  does  not  wholly  account  for  the  terms  of 
the  letter  which  follows  : — 

'  He  [Clarendon]  spoke  to  me  of  the  method  to  be  usit  for  bringing 
about  our  church  settlement,  and  bid  me  give  my  opinion  of  a  present 
expedient,  which,  when  I  had  offered,  he  was  plesit  to  approve,  so 
did  the  bishops  of  London  and  Worcester ;  and  after  consultation 
with  our  Lords,  it  was  agreed  that  Lauderdale  and  I  should  draw 
a  proclamation  from  the  king  to  be  sent  to  your  grace,  with  which 
I  trust  you  will  be  satisfied  .  .  .  that  the  perfecting  of  the  work  may 
be  upon  your  hand  from  whom  it  had  its  beginning,  and  under  whose 
countenance  and  protection  it  must  thrive  and  take  rooting.  .  .  .  The 
proclamation  will  suffice  to  the  disposing  of  minds  to  acquiescence 
to  the  king's  pleasure  .  .  .  but  now  I  trust  all  opposing  designs  are 
dashed,  and  a  foundation  laid  for  a  superstructure,  which  will  render 
your  name  precious  to  the  succeeding  generations.' ' 

The  opinion  that  Sharp  hoped  to  get  an  Assembly  called  to  settle 
on  a  modus  vivendi  is  not  borne  out  by  this  letter  or  by  the  proclama- 
tion, which  made  no  mention  or  promise  of  such  a  convocation.  Nor 
is  Sharp's  statement  to  Drummond  (21st  March) — '  I  declare  to  you  I 
have  not  acted  directly  or  indirectly  for  a  change  among  us,  nor  have 
I  touched  upon  Church  Government  in  sermons  and  conferences  at 
our  Court  or  elsewhere ' — credible  in  face  of  the  narrative  relating  the 
contempt  of  Middleton  for  the  trick  played  on  the  Presbytery  of 
Edinburgh,  and  of  his  own  statement  in  May,  that  he  had  often  been 
conversing  with  Middleton  on  the  subject. 

The  first  session  of  the  Parliament  of  [661   came  to  an  end  on 

r2th  July."     On  Middleton's  return  to  Court  to  report  progress,  the 

government  of  the  land  was  left  to  the  Privy  Council.      According 

to  Burnet,  '  it  was  a  mad,  roaring  time,  full  of  extravagance  ;  and  no 

wonder  it  was  so,  when  the  men  of  affairs  were  almost  perpetually 

drunk.'*     The  Scottish  delegates  were  still  in  London.^     Middleton 

'  London,  21st  May  1661  :  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  App.  C.  Ixxviii. 

-  1st  January  to  t2th  July  :  Act.  Pari.  Scot..,  vii.  3-367.  '  Hist.,  i.  220. 

^  Row,  Blair,  390. 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  133 

gave  to  the  King  an  account  of  his  commission  at  a  meeting  of  the 
Scots  Council  in  London,  at  which  Clarendon  was  present.'  Middleton 
said,  that  since  the  Church  of  Scotland  was  now  without  a  government 
it  behoved  the  King  to  settle  one.  Glencairn  and  Rothes  declared 
that  'six  for  one  in  Scotland  longed  for  Episcopacy' — an  assertion 
which  drew  a  direct  denial  from  the  testy  Earl  of  Crawford,  who 
retorted  that  Presbytery  had  the  ascendency.  Lauderdale,  who  as  yet 
had  not  openly  discarded  his  early  choice,  feeling  his  way,  suggested 
the  middle  and  prudent  course  of  taking  counsel  with  the  ecclesiastical 
courts  before  settling  the  matter.  Hamilton  and  Sir  Robert  Moray 
supported  this  proposal,  the  former  asserting  that  the  King's  promise 
to  the  Presbyters  of  Edinburgh  to  continue  the  faith  established  had 
prevented  the  rise  of  opposition  to  the  Rescissory  Acts.  Middleton 
demurred  to  this  proposal  on  the  ground  that  the  verdict  would  not  be 
impartial,  since  the  less  influential  clergy  and  elders  'durst  not  quarrel 
the  resolution  of  their  Rabbis,  who  would  not  adhere  to  the  oath.' 
Clarendon  finished  the  debate  with  the  taunt — '  God  preserve  me  from 
living  in  a  country  where  the  church  is  independent  from  the  state  and 
may  subsist  by  their  own  Acts  :  for  there  all  churchmen  may  be  kings.' " 

Thereupon   the    King  of  his  own    motion   resolved   to  establish  Charles  re- 
Episcopacy  and   to   impose   his   uniformity  upon  the  kingdoms  this^gj'^^^" 
time.     Accordingly  Lauderdale  was  instructed  to  write  to  the  Privy  Kpiscopacy. 
Council    ((4th    August)    intimating    the    King's   desire    for   a   better 
harmony  between  the  churches  and  '  our  firm  resolution  to  interpose 
our  royal  authority  for  restoring  of  that  church  to  its  right  government 
by  bishops,'  and  commanding  them  to  inhibit  synodical  meetings,  and 
to  mark  those  persons  evilly  disposed  to  the  Crown  and  Government. 
Yet  not  a  year  had  passed  since  Lauderdale  had  written  to  Douglas 
regarding  'our  Mother  Kirk,'  that  'it  is  no  small  comfort  to  me,  in 
serving  my  master,  to  find  that  his  Majesty  is  so  fixt  in  his  intention 
not  to  alter  anything  in  the  government  of  that  church,'  and  that  he  had 
drawn  a  proclamation  convening  an  Assembly  (23rd  October  1660). 

To  Edinburgh  Glencairn,  Rothes,  and  Sharp  brought  the  fatal  letter 

'  Mackenzie,  Memoirs,  52.  '^  /bid.,  55,  56. 


134  THE  COVENANTERS 

whose  terms  referred  to  the  former  communication  of  loth  August  1660, 
to  the  recent  Act  investing  the  Crown  with  power  to  settle  ecclesias- 
tical affairs,  and  to  the  King's  resolution  to  restore  the  Church  to  the 
position  it  held  before  the  troubles  began,  and  as  it  now  stood  settled 
by  law.      The  Privy  Council  met  on  5th  September,  and  after  refusing 
to  accept  the  suggestion  of  Tweeddale  and  Kincardine  that  the  King 
should  be  asked  to  refer  the  matter  first  to  the  Synods,  resolved  to 
Koyai  decree    Comply  with  the  royal  commands.     Accordingly  the  regal  fiat  was,  by 
e'h  Se'ptci.ibcr  Command  of  the  Privy  Council,  proclaimed  at  the  Cross  of  Edinburgh 
•66i-  with  the  usual  heraldic  ceremony,  in  presence  of  the  city  magistrates, 

on  6th  September,  and  it  was  ordered  to  be  read  at  every  burgh 
cross.  The  proclamation  announced  the  abolition  of  Presbytery, 
because  of  '  the  unsuitableness  thereof  to  his  Majesty's  monarchical 
estate,'  restored  right  government  by  bishops,  enjoined  compliance, 
forbade  clerical  courts,  banned  all  objectors,  and  ordained  all  magis- 
trates to  commit  all  nonconformists  to  prison.  This  edict,  announcing 
that  the  Acts  since  1638  had  been  rescinded,  became  the  interpreter  of 
the  deceptive  letter  of  August  which  promised  the  maintenance  of  a 
church  '  as  it  now  stands  settled  by  law.'  Now  the  law  on  the  Statute 
Book  in  existence  prior  to  1638  legalised  Episcopacy,  and  it  was  thus 
revived.'  Strong  efforts  were  made  to  seduce  the  leading  Resolu- 
tioners  from  their  allegiance  to  Presbytery,  and  promises  of  preferment 
were  held  out  to  and  refused  by  Douglas,  Baillie,  Wood,  Dickson, 
Ferguson,  and  others." 
Degradatiun  In  a  moment  the  Church  had  been  degraded  to  the  low  estate 

into  which  it  had  been  thrust  in  the  days  of  King  James,  when  the 
obsequious  Spottiswood  hailed  new-born  Prelacy  as  the  happy 
creation  of  his  Majesty.  The  royal  whim  was  now  '  The  Church's 
one  foundation.'  ^ 

'  Nicoll,  342  ;  Mackenzie,  Memoirs,  56-60;  Wodrow,  i.  230  ct  scq.  ;  Grub,  iii.  184  ;  Row, 
BlaiVy  392.  ^  Wodrow,  i.  215. 

"'  The  councillors  who  surrendered  the  national  liberties  were  Glencairn,  Rothes,  Montrose, 
Morton,  Hume,  Eglinton,  Moray,  Linlithgow,  Roxburgh,  Haddington,  Southesk,  Wemyss, 
Callendar,  Sinclair,  Dutifus,  President  Gilmour,  Primrose,  Ley.  Blackhall,  Niddrie,  Alexander 
liruce,  Sir  George  Kinnaird,  and  Sir  Robert  Moray. 


of  Church. 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  135 

The  first  exercise  of  the  powers  of  the  Privy  Council  was  seen 
in  the  interdicting  Presbyteries  meeting  to  ordain  pastors  without 
Episcopal  collation,  and  the  citing  the  Presbytery  of  Peebles  for 
ignoring  this  injunction.  At  this  juncture,  a  letter  came  to  the  Privy 
Council  from  Lauderdale  (7th  September)  enjoining  the  Council  to 
immure  Tweeddale  in  Edinburgh  Castle  for  treasonable  speeches  Tweeddaie 
uttered  at  Guthrie's  trial.  This  was  done.  After  three  weeks' '"  p"^°°" 
imprisonment  Tweeddale  was  released,  having  given  satisfactory 
explanations  of  his  conduct,  on  finding  caution  for  100,000  merks, 
and  remaining  under  surveillance.  He  was  finally  relieved  in  the 
following  May. 

Consequent  on  instructions  received  from  the  King  through 
Lauderdale,  the  Privy  Council,  9th  January  1662,  issued  a  proclama- 
tion interdicting  all  clerical  courts  meeting  until  they  were  authorised 
by  the  bishops,  who  were  about  to  be  appointed,  deacons  alone  being 
permitted  to  distribute  the  parochial  alms  in  the  interval. 

In  clerical  circles  the  new  policy  had  leaked  out  as  early  as  April,  Protestor 

jiou  L  .^      ^-         ^  •     •  !•  Robert  Baillie. 

and  when  bharp  was  busy  protesting  his  mgenuousness  and  mnocence 
to  Patrick  Drummond,  Robert  Baillie  wrote  adjuring  Lauderdale  to 
be  no  party  to  foisting  Episcopacy  on  Scotland,  and  to  persuading 
the  King  'to  tak  ministers  heids,' as  he  would  have  'to  answer  to 
God  for  that  grit  sin  and  opening  a  door,  which  in  hast  will  no  be 
closit,  for  persecution  of  the  best  persons  and  most  loyal  subjects  that 
ar  in  the  thrie  dominions.''  He  closed  the  letter  with  these  sad 
words  :  '  If  yow  or  Mr.  Sharp,  whom  we  trusted  as  our  own  soules, 
have  swerved  towards  Chancellor  Hyde's  principles,  as  now  we  see 
many  doe,  you  have  much  to  answer  for.' 

This  answer  the  men  of  Fife  soon  demanded  from  Sharp  on  his 
appearance.      He  wrote  from  Crail  Manse,  on  6th  September,  that  he 
now  stood  for  the  maintenance  of  royal  authority.     About  the  same  Biair  accuses 
time,  the  Presbytery  of  St.  Andrews  sent  a  deputation,  consisting  of  J^^^.'^^'^ " 
Robert  Blair,  and  David  Forret,  minister  of  Kilconquhar,  to  interview 
Sharp,  to  recount  the  then  current  report  tliat  he  had  already  received 

'   l8lh  April  1661  :  Lauil  Pap.,  i.  95  ;  Baillie,  Letters,  iii.  458-60. 


Blalr. 


136  THE  COVENANTERS 

a  patent  appointing  him  Archbishop,  to  call  upon  him  to  repent  for 
his  treachery  and  wicked  ways,  to  depict  the  disasters  which  befell 
previous  occupants  of  the  primatial  throne,  and  to  demand  his  refusal 
of  the  crozier.  Blair  was  eloquent :  Sharp  was  taciturn.  Persuasive 
Blair,  who  had  been  able  under  the  shadow  of  the  scaffold  to  woo 
and  win  to  Jesus  Christ  the  gay  gallant,  Nathaniel  Gordon,  entirely 
failed  with  Sharp.  Their  meeting  was  futile,  Sharp  having  deter- 
mined '  to  ride  the  ford  where  his  predecessor  drouned.'  Blair  left 
Forret  with  Sharp,  when  the  latter  became  atrabilious  and  vowed 
the  vengeance  he  afterwards  took.^  Throwing  away  the  cloak,  Sharp 
became  bolder  in  public,  essaying  to  cry  the  Covenants  down,  and 
to  seduce  his  friends  from  their  allegiance  to  the  Presbyterian  faith 
and  forms,  thus  setting  a  snare  for  his  opponent  Blair. 

Ejectment  of  The  latter  soon  found  himself  in  the  noose  so  deftly  set,  being 

cited  to  appear  before  the  CouncU  in  October  and  November.  His 
sentence  was,  that  he  confine  himself  to  his  own  chamber  in  Edinburgh, 
and  live  unattended  save  by  members  of  his  own  family.  Under  this 
restraint  Blair's  health  soon  failed,  and  he  had  further  to  humiliate 
himself  by  asking  liberty  from  the  Council  to  retire  to  Inveresk, 
where  with  recuperated  vigour  he  got  leisure  to  write  his  projected 
Covnnentary  on  the  Book  of  Proverbs} 

Blair's  death.  The  parish  church  of  St.  Andrews  was  declared  vacant,  and  soon 

Sharp  and  Honeyman  reigned  there  in  Blair's  stead.  Petty  persecu- 
tions still  awaited  the  estimable  sufferer  for  conscience'  sake  in  his 
places  of  retirement  in  Kirkcaldy  and  Aberdour.  When  in  the  latter 
place  he  was  nearing  his  death  in  1666,  and  in  all  likelihood  lay 
watching  the  little  boats  struggling  in  the  offing, 

'  Half  oure,  half  oure  to  Aberdour 
Full  fifty  fathoms  deep,' 

he  pointedly  yet  sympathetically  expressed  what  so  many  sufferers  for 
Christ,  Crown,  and  Covenant  were  yet  to  experience  :  '  O  Sharp ! 
Sharp !  there  is  no  rowing  with  thee  ;  Lord,   open  thine  eyes,  and 

•  Row,  y?/rtz>-,  392.  ■  Ibid.,  402. 


1666, 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  137 

give  thee  repentance  and  mercy,  if  it  be  Thy  will.  ...  I  would  not 
exchange  my  condition,  though  I  be  now  lying  on  my  bed  of 
languishing  and  dying,  with  thine,  O  Sharp,  for  thy  mitre  and  all 
thy  riches  and  revenues,  nay,  though  all  that 's  betwixt  thee  and 
me  were  red  gold  to  the  boot.'  ^ 

The  Kine  and  his  advisers  had  the  vacant  sees  to  fill  with  suitable 
dignitaries,  and  to  reconstitute  the  cathedral  chapters.  Sharp  took 
credit  to  himself  for  keeping  worse  men  out  than  those  let  into 
office."  All  the  nominees  were  staunch  Resolutioners.  None  of  the  The  new 
Jacobite  bishops  were  alive  with  the  exception  of  Thomas  Sydserf,  svd°e'rf. 
formerly  Bishop  of  Galloway,  the  prosecutor  of  Samuel  Rutherford, 
and  now  almost  a  nonagenarian.  The  Church  may  have  expected 
his  elevation  to  the  primatial  throne,  and  the  promotion  of  clergy 
who  had  remained  faithful  to  their  Episcopal  vows.  The  advisers  of 
the  Crown  thought  otherwise.  Sydserf  had  not  the  appearance, 
qualifications,  no  character  to  recommend  him  for  the  highest 
dignity.  The  unenviable  notoriety  given  to  him  by  Drummond 
of  Hawthornden,  who  pilloried  '  Galloway  Tam,  that  squint-eyed, 
stridling  asse,'  and  '  Roman  snakic  viper,'  as  well  as  the  injurious 
verdict  of  the  Glasgow  Assembly,  had  damaged  his  popularity 
at  home,  which  he  did  not  retrieve  during  his  exile  in  England, 
where  he  alienated  the  southern  bishops  by  conferring  orders 
in  an  unconstitutional  manner.  The  Crown,  however,  assigned 
to  the  aged  man  the  well-paid  and  easily  managed  diocese  of 
Orkney,  which  he  enjoyed  till  his  death  on  Michaelmas  Day 
1663.' 

It  was  a  foregone  conclusion  that  the  archiepiscopal  dignity  of 
St.  Andrews  should  go  to  the  active  pastor  and  politician  of  Crail, 
Dr.  James  Sharp.  In  the  interval  between  the  proclamation  of  the 
restoration  of  Episcopacy  and  the  public  announcement  of  the  selected 
bishops.  Sharp  paid  a  visit  to  Robert  Douglas  to  discuss  the  situation. 

'  Row,  Blair^  493  :  he  died  at  Couston,  Aberdour,  on  27th  August  1666,  aged  seventy-two. 
-  Sharp  to  Brodie,  9th  August  1661  :  lirodie,  Diary,  201. 
^  Grub,  Hist.,  iii.  188,  214,  215. 

VOL.  II.  S 


138 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Douglas  re- 
fuses to 
apostatise. 


Sharp  ap- 
pointed 
Primate,  I4tli 
November 
1661. 


Fairfull, 
Archbishop 
of  Glasgow. 


Sharp  then  disclosed,  as  he  said,  the  King's  desire  to  elevate  Douglas 
to  the  primacy,  whereupon  Douglas  emphatically  and  testily  replied 
that  he  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  The  persistent  Sharp 
could  not  have  forgotten  what  Douglas  had  written  to  him  :  '  We 
must  leave  that  business  to  the  Lord,  who  will  root  out  that  stinking- 
weed  in  His  own  time  whatever  pains  men  take  to  plant  it  and  make 
it  grow.''  Argument  was  useless,  and  Sharp  rose  to  leave  the  house. 
As  he  was  passing  out  Douglas  called  him  back  and  said  :  '  James,  I 
see  you  will  engadge  ;  I  perceive  that  you  are  clear,  you  will  be  bishop 
of  St.  Andrews  :  and  take  it,  and  the  curse  of  God  with  it.'" 

On  14th  November,  a  patent  was  issued  nominating  Sharp  to  the 
Metropolitan  See  of  Scotland,  and  granting  him  all  the  rights, 
privileges,  and  immunities  pertaining  to  the  office  when  held  by  its 
last  occupant,  Spottiswood.^  The  terms  of  the  patent  indicate  what 
a  creature  of  the  Crown  the  Primate  was,  thus  exalted  '  ex  authoritate 
regali,  et  potestate  regia,  certa  scientia,  proprioqtie  motu.'  He  had  no 
'call.' 

Andrew  Fairfull  was  chosen  for  Glassow.  Master  of  Arts  of  St. 
Andrews,  he  had  been  chaplain  to  Rothes  (who  owed  him  gratitude 
for  irregularly  restoring  him  from  the  stool  of  repentance  to  the  pew), 
and  minister  of  Leslie,  North  Leith,  and  Duns.  Burnet  and  Kirkton's 
descriptions  are  not  flattering :  a  wag,  insinuating,  crafty,  lecherous, 
a  veritable  Dr.  Hornbook — better  at  drugs  than  divinity.  In  his 
coarse  way  he  answered  an  objector  to  the  Covenant  :  '  There  were 
some  very  good  medecines  that  could  not  be  chewed,  but  these  were 
to  be  swallowed  down  in  a  pill  or  bolus  :  and  since  it  was  plain  that  a 
man  could  not  live  in  Scotland  unless  he  sware  it,  therefore  it  must 
be  swallowed  down  without  any  further  examination.'^  Death  ended 
his  gay  life  on  2nd  November  1663. 

The  see  of  Galloway  was  allotted  to  James  Hamilton,  minister  of 
Cambusnethan,  second  son  of  Sir  John  Hamilton  of  Broomhill.      He 

'  Wodrow,  1.  38  :   14th  June  1660. 

-  Wodrow,  i.  228  ;  Douglas's  Brief  Narration  ;  Kirkton,  135. 

^  Grub,  ill.  189. 

^  Burnet,  i.  238  ;  'AH  the  Merse  talked  of  his  amours'  :   Kirkton,  135. 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  139 

was  a  graduate  of  Glasgow.  He  was  deposed  for  contumacy  in  1639,  Hamilton, 
and  on  being  reponed  became  ostensibly  so  rigid  a  Covenanter  that  (j3ii°^° 
he  compelled  communicants  to  renew  the  Covenant  before  partaking 
at  the  Communion  table,  and  excommunicated  those  who  did  not 
comply.'  The  Government  in  1661  made  him  a  substantial  grant  of 
^100  sterling  in  recognition  of  his  sufferings  and  his  loyalty."  He 
survived  till  1674. 

The    most    notable  appointment  was   that  of  Robert  Leighton,  Leighton, 
Principal  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  of  which   he  was  also  a  uuni.iane. 
student  and  graduate,  now  sixty  years  of  age.^     He  was  selected  for 
Dunblane — 

'  A  grey  old  minster  on  the  height, 

A  quaint  old  gabled  place, 

With  church  stamped  on  its  face.' 

Leighton  was  a  miserable  invertebrate,  whom  ill-health,  largely  due 
to  his  habits,  kept  shivering  on  the  boundary  line  between  what  he 
styled  'this  weary,  weary,  wretched  life'  and  death — a  mere  reed 
piping  with  every  wind  over  the  bog  he  could  not  purify.  He 
meandered  through  life  as  in  a  dream,  fated  to  dwell  in  Scotland, 
but  anxious  to  pass  through  England  into  Heaven,  and  very  envious 
that  the  young  preacher,  Andrew  Gray,  '  has  got  the  start  of  us  and 
not  for  long.'  Jet  black  hair  made  the  ghastliness  of  his  cadaverous 
features  more  conspicuous,  and  added  the  charm  of  mysterious  godli- 
ness to  a  personality  naturally  repellent  to  vulgar  Cavaliers.  The 
expression  of  his  desire  to  die  as  he  did  in  an  inn  drew  from  the 
more  human  Dean  Swift  the  bitter  comment — 'canting  puppy." 
Yet  his  dream  was  not  that  of  Laud,  who  longed  to  be  reconciled  to 
Rome,  but  rather  that  Rome,  with  its  filial,  still  unreformed  Churches 
— the  Scots  among  the  number — should  be  reconciled  to  its  former, 
better  self — the  model  Church  of  primitive  times. 

'  Burnet,  i.  238  ;  Fasti,  iii.  275  ;  Naphtali,  135.  '■'  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  234^. 

^  Hutler,  Life  and  Letters  (Lond.,  1903),  passim  ;  Aikman,  Works  (with  Life)  of  Leii^hton 
(Edin.,  1842). 

*  Irving,  Lives  of  Scots  Writers,  ii.  145  note. 


I40  THE  COVENANTERS 

Leighton  a  According  to  Burnet,  who  knew  him  well,  Leighton  never  laughed, 

hypochondriac         i  i  -i      i  i  i 

and  mystic.  Seldom  Smiled,  and  rarely  said  an  idle  word.'  Leighton's  description 
of  himself  in  'his  diseased,  defiled  cottage,'  with  feeble  voice,  '  sfreat 
defluxion,'  and  his  '  pressingest  desire '  to  rest  in  the  grave,  is  the 
murmur  of  a  hypochondriac,  or,  as  he  styled  it,  '  ye  peevish  humour 
of  a  melancholy  monk.'  Such  a  passionless  mummy,  'whose  bones 
were  marrowless,  whose  blood  was  cold,'  is  not  the  personage  por- 
trayed in  a  painting  of  the  Principal  preserved  by  the  University  of 
Edinburgh,  which  rather  suggests  a  Christian  colonel  as  hard-mouthed 
as  any  contemporary  Cavalier.  Leighton  had  an  immoral  brother, 
.  Sir  Elisha,  a  man  in  high  places,  who,  with  some  diplomacy,  had  the 
name  and  fame  of  Robert  brought  under  the  notice  of  the  King,  who 
nominated  him  for  promotion. 

That  such  a  dreamer  should  have  accepted  a  diocese  as  a  gift 
from  the  carnal  Charles  makes  another  mystery  to  be  unfolded. 
With  a  celestial  air  he  confessed  that  he  took  office  not  of  choice 
but 'as  a  mortification,  and  that  greater  than  a  cell  and  haircloth.'- 
Brodie,  no  mean  judge  of  men,  records  in  his  Diary :  '  I  heard 
Mr.  Leighton  inclined  to  be  a  Bishop,  and  did  observe  his  loos 
principles  befor,  anent  surplic,  ceremonie  and  Papists.''  As  became 
the  son  of  that  cultured  doctor  who  had  almost  rotted  to  death,  sans 
ears  and  nose,  in  an  English  dungeon  for  promulgating  Sions  Plea 
Leighton  a  agaitist  the  Prclacie,  Robert  Leighton,  in  his  student  days,  satirised 
bishops!     ^     '  ^^  decaying  kirk  '  and  its  bishops  in  verses  which 

'  Deplore  the  mischiefes  of  this  uncouth  change.' 

After  he  went  to  the  Continent  to  complete  his  studies — and  he  was 
a  finished  scholar — his  association  with  the  followers  of  Jansen  and 
St.  Cyran  resulted  in  his  holding  lofty  spiritual  and  mystical  views, 
devotion  to  which  Leighton  realised  within  himself,  while  he  failed 
in  the  hard  arena  of  Scots  ecclesiastical  life  to  make  others  illustrate 
it.  He  found  uncongenial  employment  in  the  parish  and  church 
of  Newbattle,   where,   after    taking  the  Covenant    of   1581,    he  also 

'  Burnet,  i.  2y.)  ct  seq.  -  Uutler,  33S.  ^  30th  Sept.  1661  :  Diary,  216. 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  141 

subscribed  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  in  1643,  and  made  Leighton  signs 
others  sign  it,  too,  up  till  1650.'  He  did  not  feel  comfortable  among  jjj'^j,!'^^,^^^"^;^ 
querulous  kirkmen  and  unbending  Covenanters,  whose  devoteeism  he  ""' ^'^''^^'^• 
deemed  inconsequential.  Harmless  as  a  dove,  yet  wise  as  a  serpent, 
he  'judged  it  uselesse  and  impertinent  to  tell  them  so."-  In  1661 
this  triple-bound  Covenanter  confessed  to  Brodie  that  this  1643 
Covenant  was  a  mistake :  '  The  Couenant  was  rashli  enterd 
in,  and  is  now  to  be  repented  for.'^  What  was  worse,  he  con- 
fessed he  had  always  believed  that.  During  his  term  of  office  as 
Principal  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh  (1653-62) — a  function 
relieving  him  of  much  of  the  irksomeness  he  felt  in  pulpit  and 
parochial  duty— he  continued  preaching  to  the  professors  and  students 
in  what  Baillie  designated  '  the  new  guyse,'  which  he  further  explains 
to  be  discoursing  '  on  some  common  head,  in  a  high,  romancing, 
unscriptural  style,  tickling  the  ear  for  the  present,  and  moving  the 
affection  in  some,  bot  leaving  .  .  .  little  or  nought  to  the  memorie 
and  understanding.'* 

If  Dr.  Flint's  estimate  of  him  be  accurate — 'a  purer,  humbler, 
holier  spirit  never  tabernacled  in  Scottish  clay,'  it  is  another  mystery 
that  his  sympathy  found  no  voice  in  a  protest  at  those  meetings  of 
Presbytery  at  which  his  brethren  consigned  to  the  doom  of  the 
Privy  Council  two  wretched  women  who  '  confessed  to  having  maid 
a  covenant  with  the  devil ' ;  nor  when  the  petition  of  the  Provincial 
Assembly  of  Lothian  (8th  November  1649)  to  obtain  Parliamentary 

'  The  Newbattle  copy  of  the  Covenant  subscribed  by  Leighton  is  preserved  in  the 
National  Museum  of  Antiquities,  Edinburgh,  catalogued  i\ISS.  OA19. 

^  Leighton  to  Lothian,  23rd  Dec.  1661  :  Ancram  Coircs.,  455. 

^  Brodie,  Diary,  221.  Robert  Blair,  a  contemporary  most  likely  to  be  well  informed, 
accused  Leighton  as  much  as  Sharp  of  betraying  the  liberties  of  the  Church  (Wodrow,  i.  228). 
When  that  redoubtable  champion  of  the  Covenant,  Sir  James  Stewart  of  Coltness,  reminded 
Leighton  that  he  used  to  recommend  the  National  Covenant  to  his  flock  in  Newbattle  before 
the  dispensation  of  the  Sacraments,  Leighton  justified  his  change  on  the  ground  that  'man 
is  a  mutable  changing  essence  both  in  body  and  in  mind  and  frequently  is  misinformed,' 
backing  up  this  view  with  the  text  :  'When  I  was  a  child,  I  spake  as  a  child,'  etc.  Stewart 
also  accused  Leighton  of  nullifying  his  ordination  vows.  The  incisive  lawyer  apparently 
reckoned  Leighton  to  be  a  Pharisee  {Coltness  Collections,  68,  69). 

*  Baillie,  Letters,  iii.  258. 


142 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Leighton  a 
theoretical 
Christian. 


Difficulties  as 
to  consecration 
of  Scots 
bishops. 


Scottish  hier- 
archy conse- 
crated in 
Westminster. 


'commissiounes  for  tryall  and  burning  of  witches '  gratis  was  transmitted.' 
I  have  searched  in  vain  for  instances  of  the  personal  efforts  of  this 
saintly  minister  to  mitigate  the  brutalities  and  crimes  perpetrated 
in  the  name  of  law  and  justice  upon  hapless  Protesters  and  other 
Covenanters  ;  and,  apart  from  purely  academic  and  forensic  attempts 
to  bring  about  a  millennial  harmony,  I  have  failed  to  find  in  him  any 
phenomenal  illustrations  of  compassion.^  Indeed,  before  retiring 
from  the  Archbishopric  of  Glasgow,  Leighton,  while  app.roving  of 
Lauderdale  pressing  the  Separatists  to  give  reasons  for  their  rebellious 
opposition,  did  not  remonstrate  against  the  policy  whereby  'those 
coercions  and  civill  restraints  that  for  a  time  were  intermitted  are 
now  found  needful  to  be  renewed.'^ 

The  four  divines  were  commanded  to  London  to  receive  regular 
consecration  ;  and  as  only  Fairfull  and  Hamilton  had  been  regularly 
ordained  in  the  Episcopal  period,  Sharp  and  Leighton,  set  apart  by 
Presbyters  only,  were  compelled,  in  the  first  place,  privately  to  obtain 
orders  of  deacon  and  priest  before  they  could  seek  the  higher  dignity.^ 
Sharp  at  first  demurred  ;  with  the  pertinacity  of  a  Scot  argued  the 
validity  of  imposition  of  hands  by  Presbyters,  and  quoted  precedents 
for  exemption  from  a  second  ceremony.  Leighton,  on  the  other 
hand,  with  a  nobler  indifference  than  Lauderdale  displayed,  who 
was  prepared  to  take  'cartloads  of  oaths,'  was  ready  to  observe  any 
rites  which  did  not  weaken  the  substance  of  the  faith,  so  long  as  he 
was  speedily  furnished  for  his  mission  of  reconciliation.'' 

At  length,  with  difficulties  surmounted,  the  quartette  appeared  in 
Westminster  Abbey,  on  the  15th  December  1661,  and  were  con- 
secrated by  the  Bishops  of  London,  Worcester,  Llandaff,  and  Carlisle 
with  a  stately  ceremonial.  A  banquet  was  made  for  them  and  for  the 
Scots  aristocracy  at  Court  in  the  house  of  Sir  Abraham  Williams,  but 


'  St.  Gile^  Lectures,  204  (Edin.) ;  Rec,  223,  233,  quoted  by  Butler. 
'  Row,  Blair,  410,  518. 

'  Leigliton  to  Lauderdale,  i6th  June  1674  ;  Laud.  Pap.,  iii.  50. 

'  Mr.  Andrew  Lang  rashly  asserts  that  the  four  were  '  rushed  through  deacons'  and  priests' 
orders  to  the  discontent  of  Sharp' :  Hist.  Scot.,  iii.  300. 

^  Row,  Blair,  399  ;  Wodrow,  Anal.,  \.  133  ;  Hurnet,  i.  247  ;  Kirktun,  137. 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  143 

the  joviality  of  the  party  made  the  hypersensitive  Leighton  feel  the 
incongruity  of  merriment  and  the  sad  travail  he  felt  coming  on  the 
bishops  of  souls.  Sharp  had  no  such  forebodings.  Just  a  year  pre- 
viously Sharp  wrote  to  Lauderdale  in  these  terms  :  '  Whatever  lot  I 
may  meet  with,  I  scorn  to  prostitute  my  conscience  and  honesty  to 
base  unbecoming  allurements.' '  The  Scots  bishops  lingered  amid  the 
allurements  of  Court  till  spring,  before  going  north  to  bestow  the 
apostolical  afflatus  upon  their  less  favoured  brethren.  Leighton,  eager 
to  inaugurate  a  peaceable  scheme  for  composing  the  unhappy 
differences  in  the  land,  lost  no  time  in  introducing  his  irenicon  to  the 
other  bishops,  only  to  discover  that  Sharp,  with  the  craft  of  a  diplo- 
matist, had  nothing  to  suggest  nor  do  meantime,  and  the  jocund 
Fairfull,  light  of  heart,  skipped  away  into  lighter  veins  of  thought." 
The  homeward  journey  of  the  four  bishops  in  Sharp's  brand-new 
coach  afforded  the  dreamer  another  mortification.^  But  at  Morpeth 
he  dropped  the  penance  and  the  society  of  the  bishops,  when  he 
learned  that  a  triumph  was  planned  for  their  entry  into  Edinburgh. 
He  preceded  his  colleagues  and  arrived  in  the  Capital  early  in  April. 
While  some  supporters  went  as  far  as  the  Borders,  the  Chancellor, 
Privy  Council,  and  magistrates  marched  out  of  the  city  to  greet  and 
bring  them  back.  Burnet  witnessed  their  advent,  heard  the  roarino-, 
obsequious  crowds,  but  was  not  impressed  with  the  humility  of  the 
triumvirate  forming  the  idols  in  that  tawdry  show,  which  was  intended 
for  an  ovation,  on  the  historic  Hicrh  Street  of  Edinbureh.^ 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  bishops  was  the  rehabilitation  of  the  wishart, 
hierarchy  to  its  completeness.     The  see  of  Edinburgh  was  assio-ned  to  ^'''"'''  ""^ 

'■  o  to  Edinliurgh. 

Dr.  George  Wishart,  a  staunch  sufferer  for  Monarchy  and  Episcopacy. 
He  was  the  son  of  Sir  John  Wishart  of  Logie,  in  Angus,  a  Graduate 
of  Edinburgh,  appointed  by  King  James  to  Monifieth  in  1624,  and 
translated  to  the  second  charge  of  St.  Andrews  in  1626.  Adherino- 
to  Episcopacy,  he  fled  to  England  in  1637,  and,  two  years  later,  was 
deposed  for  deserting  his  flock,  and  for  heresy,  immorality,  and  harsh 

'  13th  December  1660  :  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  Jo.  ^  Burnet,  i.  248,  249. 

■'  Ibid.,  2z,i.  *  Ibid.,  2^2. 


144 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Milchell, 
Bishop  of 
Aberdeen. 


Consecral 
of  other 
bishops,  I 


662 


discipline.  Wodrow  accuses  him  of  profane  swearing  on  the  streets 
of  Edinburgh,  of  being  'a  known  drunkard,'  and  of  writing  immodest 
Sapphics,  a  '  scandal  to  all  the  world.' '  He  became  a  lecturer  in  New- 
castle, where  he  was  captured  by  the  Scots  in  1644,  and  sent  down  to 
the  Tolbooth  of  Edinburgh  for  seven  months.  He  joined  Montrose, 
accompanied  him  as  his  chaplain,  and  went  to  the  Continent,  where 
he  found  leisure  to  write  the  history  of  that  hero's  campaigns.-  He 
visited  England  in  1660  in  the  capacity  of  chaplain  to  Elizabeth  of 
Bohemia.^  It  is  recorded  to  his  credit  that,  remembering  the  horrors 
of  the  Tolbooth,  he  daily  sent  some  provisions  to  the  prisoners  taken 
at  Rullion  Green  in  1666 — a  rare  instance  of  practical  millenarianism. 

For  Aberdeen  was  selected  Dr.  David  Mitchell,  formerly  in  the 
Old  Church  of  St.  Giles,  Edinburgh,  from  which  he  was  removed  in 
1638  for  declining  the  jurisdiction  of  the  General  Assembly  and  for 
alleged  Arminianism.  He  went  into  exile  in  Holland,  and  returned  to 
England  at  the  Restoration  to  become  a  prebendary  in  Westminster. 
He  had  his  doctor's  degree  from  Oxford.  Death  deprived  him  of 
office  in  January  1663. 

On  Wednesday,  7th  May,  the  Bishops-designate  of  Moray,*  Brechin, 
Dunkeld,  Ross,  Caithness,  and  the  Isles  were  consecrated  in  Holyrood 
Abbey  Church  by  the  two  Archbishops  and  Bishop  Hamilton,  in  the 
presence  of  the  Royal  Commissioner,  Middleton,  the  Estates,  and  the 
Town  Council.  The  preacher.  Dr.  James  Gordon,  of  Drumblade, 
in  his  sermon  had  the  honesty  to  remind  the  bishops  of  the  frailties 
of  their  predecessors,  and  to  counsel  them  to  sobriety,  humility,  and 
attention  to  their  spiritual  functions.  Next  day  nine  out  of  the  four- 
teen prelates  took  their  seats  in  Parliament.     The  consecration  of  the 


'  Hist.,  i.  236. 

2  De  Rebus  auspiciis  Serenissimi  et  Potentissimi  Carol!  sub  imperio  Jacobi  Montisro- 
sarum  Marchionis  supremi  Scotiic  Gubernatoris  anno  1644  .  .  .  Interprete  A.  S.  Agricola 
Sophocardia,  i.e.  George  Wishart.  The  Government  gave  him  a  grant  for  his  loyalty  and 
sufferings. 

2  He  died  at  Lammas,  1671,  aged  seventy-two. 

'^  Murdoch  M'Kenzie,  minister  of  Elgin,  1645,  was  so  zealous  a  Covenanter  that  in  1659  he 
searched  the  town  to  deprive  the  people  of  their  Christmas  goose  :  Scott,  Fcnti,  v.  151.  He 
became  liishop  of  Orkney  in  1677. 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH 


'45 


Bishops  of  Edinburgh  and  Aberdeen  was  postponed  till  3rd  June  and 
took  place  at  St.  Andrews,  while  that  of  the  Bishop  of  Argyle  took 
place  in  Glasgow  that  summer,  Fairfull  being  the  celebrant.' 

None  of  the  new  bishops  and  none  of  the  clergy  who  conformed 
to  the  new  order  were  again  ordained  priests  and  deacons,  as  might 
have  been  expected  at  the  hands  of  the  Westminster  neophytes. 

The  following  table  gives   the  names  of  the   bishops  and  their 

emoluments  :— 

James  Sharp,  D.D.,  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews 

Andrew  Fairfull,  A.M.,  Archbishop  of  Glasgow, 

George  Wishart,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Edinburgh, 

Murdoch  Mackenzie,  A.M.,  Bishop  of  Moray, 

David  Strachan,  A.M.,  Bishop  of  Brechin, 

David  Mitchell,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen, 

George  Haliburton,  A.M.,  Bishop  of  Dunkeld, 

Robert  Leighton,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Dunblane, 

Patrick  Forbes,  A.M.,  Bishop  of  Caithness, 

John  Paterson,  A.M.,  Bishop  of  Ross, 

Thomas  Sydserf,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Orkney, 

James  Hamilton,  A.M.,  Bishop  of  Galloway, 

Robert  Wallace,  A.M.,  Bishop  of  Isles,^ 

David  Fletcher,  A.M.,  Bishop  of  Argyle,    .         .    (The  stipend  of  Melrose.) 

The  hierarchy  was  now  equipped  for  its  mission,  which  turned 
out  to  be  a  militant  one,  Leighton  confessing  it  was  '  fighting  against 
God,'  and  multitudes  of  his  countrymen  resisting  the  bishops  as  their 
natural  enemies.  From  the  very  beginning  Leighton  appears  to 
have  felt  no  confidence  in  the  wisdom,  pleasure  in  the  society,  nor 
satisfaction  in  the  work  of  his  colleagues,  and  '  quickly  lost  all  heart 
and  hope.'  His  letters  entirely  bear  out  the  impression  left  by  the 
conversations  of  the  dispirited  visionary  upon  the  mind  of  Burnet, 
who  thus  recorded  what  he  had  heard  :  'He  who  had  the  greatest 
hand  in  it  [i.e.  Sharp  and  the  restoration  of  the  bishops]  proceeded 

'  Row,  Blair,  406  ;  Nicoll,  365  ;  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  368. 

-  To  this  sum  are  to  be  added  revenues  from  Crossraguel,  Monymusk,  and  the  Chapel 
Royal. 

^  Bishop  Wallace  is  buried  in  Rothesay  churchyard.  His  tomb  was  lately  renovated. 
He  was  cousin-german  of  the  Earl  of  Glencairn,  and  was  noted  for  his  big  stomach.  His 
epitaph  indicates  that  he  was  a  man  of  vigour  and  intellect. 

VOL.   II.  T 


i^iS44 
1294 

93 

6 

5 
6 

I 

7 
10 

List  of  bishops 
and  their 
salaries. 

198 

8 

I 

76 

6 

1 1 

288 

10 

II 

152 

8 

8 

43 

19 

I  - 

547 

4 

10 

452 

0 

7 

1366 

2 

8 

1366 

2 

8 

140 

0 

0 

146  THE  COVENANTERS 

The  prelates  With  SO  much  dissimulation,  and  the  rest  of  the  order  were  so  mean 
['carnal'  in  the  original  MS.]  and  so  selfish,  and  the  Earl  of  Middle- 
ton,  with  the  other  secular  men  that  conducted  it,  were  so  openly 
impious  and  vicious,  that  it  did  cast  a  reproach  on  everything  relating 
to  religion,  to  see  it  managed  by  such  instruments.''  There  is  one 
noticeable  illustration  of  the  evil  of  this  change  of  Government.  In 
1660  the  Synod  of  Argyle  resolved  on  translating  the  Scriptures  into 
Gaelic,  and  appointed  a  large  committee  of  Gaelic-speaking  ministers 
to  execute  the  work.^  Two  years  later  the  majority  of  them  were 
deprived  by  Act  of  Parliament  and  of  Privy  Council.  His  epitaph 
in  Rothesay  gives  Bishop  Wallace  the  credit  of  restoring  the  preached 
evangel  to  the  diocese  of  Sodor.  There  was  a  gloomy  outlook  and 
a  miserable  future  for  distressed  Scotland  in  1662,  and  none  the 
less  because  Sharp,  on  preaching  his  first  sermon  after  his  consecra- 
tion at  St.  Andrews,  on  20th  April  1662,  chose  for  his  text  i  Cor.  ii.  2  : 
'  For  I  determined  not  to  know  anything  among  you,  save  Jesus 
Christ,  and  Him  crucified.'  To  the  master  Christian  of  Scotland  a 
crozier  was  no  '  unbecoming  allurement '  now,  and  his  sermon  glorified 
the  crozier,  not  the  Cross. 
Second  session  Middleton  again  presided  as  Commissioner  in  the  second  session 
1662.  '  of  Parliament,  which  sat  from  8th  May  till  9th  September.      Its  first 

statute  enacted  that,  '  It  is  fit  the  parliament  be  returned  to  its  antient 
constitution,  and  that  the  clergie  have  their  place  and  vote  in  parlia- 
ment as  formerlie.'  On  this  being  agreed  to,  six  commissioners 
were  sent  to  conduct  from  Sharp's  lodgings,  near  the  Netherbow, 
where  they  were  assembled,  in  Episcopal  vestments,  the  two  Arch- 
bishops and  the  Bishops  of  Galloway,  Dunkeld,  Moray,  Ross,  Brechin, 
Caithness,  and  the  Isles,  who  came  in  and  took  the  oath  of  allegiance 
and  the  oath  of  Parliament.'  After  the  ceremony  the  completed 
Estates,   in  pomp,  marched   down  to   Holyrood  to  feast.     Leighton 

'  Burnet,  i.  249.  Hallam  accepted  this  estimate  and  declared  'the  new  prelates  were 
odious  as  apostates,  and  soon  gained  a  still  more  indelible  title  to  popular  hatred  as 
persecutors'  :  Const.  Hist.,  iii.  327,  328,  329. 

^  Synod  Record,  30th  May,  2nd  November  1660.  Dugald  Campbell,  minister  of  Knapdale, 
was  appointed  Editor.  ^  Act.  Part.  Scot.,  vii.  370,  371. 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  147 

kept  away,  being  anxious  to  stand  well  with  the  opponents  of  these 
clerical  members  of  the  civil  Government.  The  Estates  soon  pro- 
ceeded to  sound  the  death-knell  of  Covenanted  Presbyterianism,  and 
to  proclaim  the  autocracy  of  the  King. 

The  third  Act,  entitled  '  Act  for  the  Restitution  and  Re-establish-  Re-establish- 
ment of  the  Antient  Government  of  the  Church  by  Archbishops  and  Episcopacy. 
Bishops,'  was    based    on    the    dictum — '  Forasmuch  as  the  ordering 
and  disposall  of  the  external  government  and  Policie  of  the  Church 
doth  properlie  belong  unto  his  maiesty  and  an  inherent  right  of  the 
Crown  by  virtue  of  his  Royal  Prerogative  and  Supremacie  in  Causes 
ecclesiastical' '     This  new  statute  revived  all  relative  Acts,  annulled 
the  Charter  of  Presbytery  (Act  i,  1592),  restored  to  the  bishops  the 
jurisdiction  of  commissariats  (Act   6,    1609),  and   made  bishops  the 
superiors    of    lands    held    by    persons    off    the    Crown    since    1638. 
Act   7,    '  Concerning    Benefices,'   declared  all   parishes  to  be   vacant 
whose  ministers  had  been  appointed  since  1649,  unless  they  applied 
for  and  got  presentations  from  the  former  patrons,  as  well  as  collation 
from   the   bishops,  before   20th    September."     Thus  the  sinister  Act 
of  Patronage  was  revived  and  a  test  of  Episcopacy  provided  at  the 
outset.     The  test  of  loyalty  came  next.     Act  8^  ordained  that  any  Tests  of 
person  who  refused  to  celebrate  the  King's  anniversary  should  ipso    ^ 
facto  lose  his  appointment  and  should  not  enjoy  any  benefice. 

Act    12* — -'Act    for   preservation    of  his    Maiesties    person    and  Acts  declaring 

-  1   •      1      r  ^  Covenanting 

government  — was  so  drawn  as  to  embrace  every  kmd  ot  treason  con-  j^  ^e  treason, 
ceivable,  and  declared  all  the  official  doings  throughout  the  Covenant-  24th  June  1662. 
ing  epoch  (1638-60)  to  be  illegal,  all  bonds  made  or  to  be  made,  in- 
cluding the  National  Covenant  and  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant, 
to  be  unlawful,  the  General  Assembly  of  Glasgow  to  have  been 
treasonable,  inhibiting  all  persons  in  rebellion  by  word,  writing,  or 
deed  against  regal  and  ecclesiastical  authority,  and  declaring  all 
offenders  against  these  provisions  to  be  incapable  of  civil  employment. 
This  statute  was  supplemented  by  another  Act,  whereby  '  persons  in 

'  27th  May,  Act  3  :  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  372-4.  '  Ibid.,  376  :   nth  June. 


Ibid.,  376.  ■•  Ibid.,  377  :  24th  June. 


Oblivion. 


148  THE  COVENANTERS 

public  trust '  were  to  make  a  declaration  acknowledging  the  Cove- 
nants to  be  unlawful  and  not  obligatory.'  This  last  enactment  was 
meant  for  a  trap  to  ensnare  Lauderdale  and  Crawford- Lindsay,  and 
to  lead  to  their  displacement  from  power  and  place ;  but  '  Lauderdale 
laughed  at  this  contrivance,  and  told  them  he  would  sign  a  cartful 
of  such  oaths  before  he  would  lose  his  place.'"  Crawford  was  not 
so  pliant,  and  ultimately  was  turned  out  of  office.  Act  13'  made  it 
imperative  that  all  principals,  professors,  and  teachers  in  colleges  should 
own  allegiance  to  the  bishop,  that  all  ministers  attend  diocesan  meet- 
ings, and  that  all  private  chaplains,  tutors,  and  public  teachers  should 
be  licensed  by  the  ordinary,  so  that  conventicles  should  not  interfere 
with  public  worship  and  alienate  parishioners  from  the  legal  pastors. 
In  order  that  disloyalty  should  be  totally  stamped  out,  exemptions  were 
Act  of  made  in  the  Act  of  Oblivion,*  and  Argyll,  Wariston,  Swinton,  Guthrie, 

Govan,  Home,  Dundas,  some  Campbells,  and  regicides,  were  re- 
served for  justice.  By  Act  jT)'  rebels  and  their  families  were  stripped 
of  everything  making  existence  possible,  and  by  it  even  supplicants  for 
mercy  to  the  rebels  made  themselves  liable  to  prosecution  for  dis- 
loyalty. In  contrast  with  this  drastic  procedure  the  Reverend  Father 
in  God,  Sharp,  was  ratified  in  his  possession  of  the  priory  and  abbacy 
of  St.  Andrews — a  fatal  gift.'^  As  if  to  display  the  royal  magnanimity, 
Act  80  '^'  authorised  an  indemnity,  pardon,  and  oblivion  to  many  rebels, 
with  special  exceptions  of  about  eight  hundred  persons  supposed  to 
be  able  to  pay  heavy  fines,  ranging  from  ^200,  up  to  ;^  18,000  (Scots), 
— that  of  Sir  William  Scot  of  Harden.  Some  for  no  offence,  others 
then  dead,  minors,  and  mere  names  of  persons  unknown  were  placed 
on  this  list.'  In  the  list  are  seen  the  names  of  Loudoun,  Lothian, 
Borthwick,  Balmerino,  Balfour,  Cowpar,  Ruthven,  nobles,  knights, 
lairds,  and  of  the  Kirkos  of  Sundaywell  and  Bogrie,  Neilson  of  Cor- 
sock,   Maclellans,    Gordon  of  Earlstoun,  and  other  westland  Whigs, 

'  Act  54  :  Act.  Purl.  Scol.,  vii.  405.  (The  deed  of  Renunciation  signed  by  Glencairn, 
Rothes,  Argyll,  Lauderdale,  many  other  nobles  and  gentlemen,  Protestant  and  Catholic, 
about  two  hundred  in  all,  is  extant  in  the  Register  House,  Hist.  Dep.,  Q.  247.) 

-  Mackenzie,  Memoirs,  64.  ^  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  379.  ■*  Act  71  :  liiW.,  415. 

'  Act  88  :  i6id.,  432.  '  /did.,  420,  '  Naphtali,  100. 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  149 

who  were  to  figure  yet  at   Rullion  Green,   Drumclog,  and  Bothwell  Fines. 
Brig/     The  total  amount  of  the  fines  amounted  to  ;^i, 91 7,353,  6s.  8d. 
Scots.      Never  before  had  the  Church  in  Scotland  suffered  in   one 
season  the  triple  calamity  of  being  oppressed  with  patronage,  prelacy, 
and  Parliamentary  control. 

Middleton,  not  content  with  executing  this  unpopular  policy, 
cunningly  planned  the  downfall  of  his  powerful  rivals,  Lauderdale, 
Crawford- Lindsay,  and  Sir  Robert  Moray,  so  that  he  might  the  more 
easily  enjoy  the  forfeitures  and  fines,  which  he  reckoned  on  for  his 
self-aggrandisement.  He  all  but  succeeded.  He  asked  Parliament 
on  the  one  hand  to  believe  that  the  King  wished,  and  he  made  the 
King  on  the  other  hand  to  understand  that  Parliament  desired,  that 
there  should  be  an  exception  in  the  Act  of  Indemnity  of  twelve  persons 
who  were  considered  incapable  of  holding  places  of  public  trust — the 
names  of  the  proscribed  to  be  found  out  from  the  votes  of  members 
of  Parliament  voting  secretly  by  billets.  The  Estates  were  led  into  The  Billeting 
passing  the  Billeting  Act  on  9th  September  1662."  Lauderdale  and  ^gj\°652^'''^'" 
his  henchman,  Sir  Robert  Moray,  were  among  the  proscribed."  The 
influence  of  Lauderdale  at  Court  had  been  on  the  wane  durinsf  the 
winter  through  the  intrigues  of  Middleton  and  others;  but  when 
Middleton  returned  in  February*  to  give  to  the  King  and  Council 
an  account  of  his  Commissionership,  Lauderdale  was  prepared  to 
expose  the  mean  trick  of  his  enemy,  his  dishonourable  attack  upon 
the  liberties  of  Parliament,  as  well  as  the  affront  put  on  his  Majesty 
by  the  proposed  insult  to  servants  chosen  by  himself  He  accused 
Middleton  of  overstepping  his  function,  disregarding  the  King's 
behests,  usurping  the  royal  power  by  touching  statutes  with  the  sceptre 
without  the  King's  authority,  and  other  fraudulent  offences.      Middle- 

'  1662,  Act  80  :  '  Act  containing  some  Exceptions  from  the  Act  of  Indemnitie  '  :  Act.  Pari. 
Scot.,  vii.  420.     Loudoun  was  mulcted  in  ^12,000  ;  ibid.,  vii.  425^. 

-  1 6C2,  c.  30  :  '  Act  rescinding  two  Acts  passed  in  the  second  session  of  the  Parliament,  the 
one  for  Excepting  of  persons  from  public  trusts,  and  the  other  for  voteing  the  same  by  billets'  : 
ibid.,  vii.  471,  450.    '  Act  appoynting  the  maner  of  voteing  by  Billets ' :  ibid.,  vii.  472. 

2  Laud.  Pup.,  i.  106-34  ;  Mackenzie,  Memoirs,  49;  Burnet,  i.  258  et  seq.  ;  Add.  MSS.,  Brit. 
Mus.,  23246  {Middleton  Pap.,  1662-4). 

*  He  left  Edinburgh  on  30th  December,  according  to  Nicoll. 


I50  THE  COVENANTERS 

Recall  of  ton's  defencc  was  unavailing.  He  was  hoist  with  his  own  petard  by 
eton.  ^  cleverer  tactician.  His  subsequent  interference  with  a  proclama- 
tion regarding  the  fines,  which  he  still  intended  to  peculate,  led  to  the 
recall  of  his  commission  on  loth  March,  and  to  the  appointment  of 
his  rival  to  the  Captaincy  of  Edinburgh  Castle.  '  And  thus  the 
fines,'  wrote  Mackenzie,  'which  were  imposed  by  Middleton  to 
enrich  his  friends,  proved  his  ruin.''  Exactly  one  year  afterwards 
Lauderdale  had  the  gratification  of  getting  the  two  over-reaching 
measures  erased  from  the  Statute  Book.^ 
Degradation  On  the  tum  of  the  tide  in  political  affairs,  the  Royalists  lost  no 

League'and      opportunity  of  bringing  into  contempt  what  the  Covenanters  looked 
Covenant,  29th  upon    as    the    palladium   of  the    country — the    Solemn    Leagfue    and 

May  1662,  at         ^  '^  ° 

Linlithgow.  Covenant.  On  29th  May,  Restoration  Day  was  observed  every- 
where as  '  a  holiday  to  the  Lord.'  At  the  Cross  of  Edinburgh  the 
common  hangman  tore  the  Covenants  to  pieces.  Linlithgow  that 
day  held  high  carnival,  under  the  guidance  of  the  Earl  of  Linlithgow, 
the  minister  James  Ramsay,^  and  Bailie  Robert  Miln.  A  great 
festal  baldachin  was  erected  beside  the  Cross.  It  was  surmounted 
by  an  effigy  of  the  Devil,  from  whose  mouth  issued  a  scroll  with  the 
words  on  it,  'Stand  to  the  Cause.'  On  one  side  appeared  the  effigy 
of  an  old  hag  carrying  the  Covenant,  and  holding  up  an  inscription : 
'  A  orlorious   Reformation.'     The  Kino-'s  health    was  honoured  ;  fire 

C>  Q  ' 

was  set  to  the  erection,  and  after  every  possible  indignity  shown  to 
the  Covenants  and  the  relative  Acts  of  Parliament  and  Assembly, 
these  documents  were  torn  and  reduced  to  ashes  in  the  flames  amid 
the  plaudits  of  a  hilarious  crowd.  The  burgh  fountain  ran  with 
wine,  sweetmeats  were  distributed,  and  the  revellers  finished  with  a 
carouse  in  the  Palace.^ 

'  MefHOi'rs,  1 1 3. 

^  The  discarded  Middleton  ventured  to  approach  and  kneel  before  the  King  at  Rath,  only 
to  find  his  master  pass  him  by  as  an  unknown  cur  :  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  189.  He  became  governor  of 
Tangier,  and  died  there  in  1673  after  a  drinking-bout  :  Art.  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.,  for  authorities. 

^  Afterwards  Dean  of  Hamilton,  combatant  at  Rullion  Green,  and  Bishop  of  Dunblane, 
— a  sworn  Covenanter  ! 

■"  Diurnal,  WodrP7ti  AfS.'^.,  .\.\xii.  34.  A  D/sma/  Account  of  the  Bujituig,  etc.  (Stevenson's 
reprint,  1832) ;  Chambers,  Doin.  Annals,  ii.  292 ;  Fergusson,  Ecclesia  Antigua,  192  (Edin.,  1905) 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  151 

Parliament  rose  on  9th  September.  Middleton  and  the  Privy 
Council  met  next  day,  and  ratified  a  resolution  of  the  bishops  to  meet 
with  their  clergy  in  the  various  dioceses  in  October.  All  persons 
holding  ecclesiastical  appointments  were  enjoined  to  meet  with  their 
respective  ordinaries  on  a  day  notified,  refusers  to  be  held  to  be 
contemners  of  authority  and  liable  to  censure,  while  those  convening 
religious  meetings  were  to  be  certified  as  seditious.  Trouble  was 
anticipated  in  the  west  and  south,  only  conformity  in  the  north. 
The  ministers  in  many  Synods  were  tardy  in  declaring  their  allegiance 
to  their  new  overseers.  In  the  diocese  of  Glasgow  only  a  moiety 
appeared  to  welcome  the  Archbishop,  and  not  one  of  those  popularly 
elected  since  1649  acknowledged  his  jurisdiction. 

Middleton,     accompanied     by    Glencairn,     Hamilton,     Montrose,  Middleton  and 
Morton,    Eglinton,   Linlithgow,   Callendar,    Newburgh,  and  Sinclair,  ^j^^  J^_' 
Privy  Councillors  bearingr  names   familiar   to   all  signatories   of  the=°""'0''n 

^  .  .    .  ,  ,      •      •     n  -1  •    ,  -1  October  i66z. 

Covenants,  imagmmg  that  their  innuential  presence  might  stimulate 
the  moribund  interest  of  the  westland  Whigs  in  the  new  frame 
of  religion,  resolved  on  a  semi-royal  progress  through  Clydesdale, 
Nithsdale,  Galloway,  and  Ayrshire,  by  way  of  Glasgow,  Hamilton, 
Paisley,  Dumfries,  Wigtown,  Ayr,  and  Dumbarton.  With  the  tinsel 
and  noise  of  a  triumph  they  displayed  the  unmistakable  symbols  of 
the  new  regime — maces,  swords,  and  drums.  Middleton  and  riot 
went  together.  These  exponents  of  the  new  Evangel  held  their  love- 
feasts  at  night,  like  the  early  Christians,  but  it  was  Satan  whose 
health  they  pledged  at  the  cross  of  Ayr.^  According  to  Burnet  this 
surcharge  of  gaiety  rendered  Middleton  fuddled  and  obfuscated. 

When  this  Court  arrived  in  Glasgow,  Archbishop  Fairfull  had  a 
woeful  tale  to  narrate  of  the  obstinacy  of  younger  ministers,  who  had 
neither  come  to  welcome  Episcopacy  and  himself,  nor  taken  the 
necessary  steps  for  remaining  in  their  charges.  When  asked  to 
suggest  a  remedy,  he  proposed  that  a  peremptory  order  be  issued 
enjoining  all  pastors  to  submit  to  authority  forthwith  or  quit  their 
manses  and  remove  into  other  Presbyteries.     He  acted  on  the  sup- 

'  Wodrow,  i.  282  ;  Kirkton,  152. 


152  THE  COVENANTERS 

position    that   the  clergy    having    flexible    consciences   would    rather 

comply   than  suffer,  and  that   no  more  than   ten  pastors  would  be 

obstinate.     The  maudlin  legislators,  fired  with  this  inspiration,  met  in 

the  Fore  College  Hall  on   ist  October,  and  heedless  of  the  conse- 

Edictof  quences,  authorised  an  edict  of  eviction  to  this  effect:  ministers  who 

eviction.  have  not  obeyed  the  recent  Acts  shall  forthwith  cease  the  exercise  of* 

the  ministry  ;  their  pulpits  shall  be  declared  vacant ;  parishioners  are 

relieved  from  payment  to  them  of  stipend,  and  from  acknowledgment 

of  their  ministry,  on  pain  of  being  convicted  as  conventiclers ;  non- 

compliers  shall  remove  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  Presbytery  before 

ist  November;  neglccters  of  the  anniversary  thanksgiving  shall  be 

mulcted  in  one  year's  stipend,  and  be  liable  to  the  full  penalty  fixed 

by    the   Act.'     All  signed   the  ordinance.     The   Duke   of  Hamilton 

informed   Burnet  that  '  they  were  all  so  drunk  that  day,  that  they 

were  not  capable  of  considering  anything  that  was  laid  before  them, 

and  would  hear  of  nothing  but  the  executing  of  the  law,  without  any 

relenting  or  delay.' ^ 

Evil  effects  of  The   ministers  were   now   in  even    a   worse   case    than    the  civil 

the  ptociama-   gervants  of  the  Crown,  who  had  in  their  declaration  to  repudiate  the 

lion.  ■  .  .... 

Covenanted  Work  of  Reformation,  because  the  stipends  m  grain  were 
not  yet  converted  into  money,  and  the  nonconforming  ministers  had 
to  leave  their  homes  in  winter.  They  had  a  recent  noble  precedent  in 
the  action  of  two  thousand  English  clergy,  who  on  St.  Bartholomew's 
Day  preferred  eviction  to  conformity.  So  great  indeed  was  the 
number  of  the  pastors  of  Scotland  who  refused  compliance,  that  the 
majority  of  the  Council  on  becoming  sober  grew  alarmed  at  their 
own  headstrong  mistake.  Middleton  raged  and  cursed  at  having 
been  befooled,  and  endeavoured  to  get  the  Archbishops  to  contrive, 
'  for  the  good  of  the  people,'  some  way  of  undoing  the  evil  effects  of 
the  order.  Fairfull  was  in  no  hurry  to  retract.  Sharp  professed  to 
be  shocked  at  the  proclamation,  '  nor  did  he  imagine  that  so  rash  a 
thing  could  have  been  done  till  he  saw  it  in  print."  His  method  was 
to  break   his  opponents   one  by  one.     The   Council,   at   their   first 

'  Wodrow,  i.  282.  ^  Hist.,  i.  269.  ^  Burnet,  i.  269. 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  153 

meeting  on  23rd  December,  authorised  another  proclamation  by 
which  the  rigour  of  their  former  order  was  mitigated,  and  ministers 
were  indulged  until  ist  February  to  obtain  legalised  presentation  and 
collation,  but  were  ordered  to  stay  in  their  own  parishes ;  while 
wanderers  from  their  own  parish  churches  were  ordered  to  be  fined 
in  twenty  shillings  Scots,  and  extra-parochial  gatherings  at  Com- 
munions or  'Holy  Fairs'  were  proclaimed  as  'a  special  engine  to 
debauch  people  from  their  duty.'  This  respite  was  a  convenience  to 
a  very  few  waverers.  The  debauchery  of  the  Commissioner,  Council, 
and  legislators  had  given  the  earnest  preachers  too  good  a  theme  for 
proving  the  manifest  evil  accompaniments  of  prelatic  government, 
and  the  aroused  hearers  in  turn,  trusting  to  that  lead,  encouraged 
their  pastors  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  a  coercive  government  and  to 
become  conventiclers. 

While  Leighton's  peers  on  the  Episcopal  bench  were  preparing  Leighton's 

,,.,.,,  T-,         ,  .  .  diocesan  work, 

to  set  m  order  their  '  precmcts  — thus  rresbytenes  were  sometimes  September 
designated — he  had  summoned  the  clergy  of  Dunblane  to  meet  on  '^^2. 
15th  September  1662.  Few  absented  themselves.  They  began  the 
business  with  sermon,  prayer,  and  reading ;  and  he  said  he  would 
preside,  unless  '  brethren  of  the  exercise '  wished  to  choose  their  own 
moderator.  He  was  pawky,  and  left  nothing  to  chance  or  to  clerical 
ingenuity.  He  read  aloud  a  document,  which  was  a  miniature  Book 
of  Discipline  and  Ordinal  combined,  in  which  he  enjoined  judicial 
government  of  church  members,  family  worship,  decorous  public 
worship — the  Lord's  Prayer,  Doxology,  and  Creed  being  restored — 
extra  services,  the  use  of  the  Catechism,  popular  sermons,  and  piety 
on  the  part  of  the  clergy.  The  ministers  accepted  the  proposals.^ 
Leighton's  humility  in  offering  to  sit  at  the  foot  of  the  table  while  the 
brethren  dined  was  thought  by  some  to  be  '  but  straking  cream  in 
their  mouths  at  first.' ^  In  other  dioceses  the  functions  of  Presbyteries 
and  kirk-sessions  were  little  interfered  with. 

In   St.   Andrews,    the  archbishop  was   neither  so  tactful   nor  so 
successful,  and  many  of  the  wilful  pastors  of  Fife  refused  to  compear 

'  Wilson,  Register,  1-4.  -  Row,  Blair,  427. 

VOL.  a.  u 


154 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Changes  in 
Aberdeen. 


and  own  Sharp's  exaltation.     The  names  of  the  defaulters  were  sent 
Innovations  of  jq  the  Privv  Council.     Sharp  introduced  innovations,  and  nominated 

the  prelates. 

a  constant  moderator  for  each  Presbytery.'  Bishop  Wishart  and 
fifty-eight  of  the  brethren  met  and  constituted  the  Synod  of  Edin- 
burgh, in  the  presence  of  the  Lord  Advocate,  city  magistrates,  and 
persons  of  influence.  He  chose  '  Moderation  '  for  his  text."  Among 
other  innovations  he  arranged  for  public  prayers,  morning  and  evening 
daily,  and  for  the  preparation  of  the  Synod  business  by  a  committee. 

In  King's  College  Chapel,  Aberdeen,  Bishop  Mitchell  was  met  by 
nearly  all  the  clergy  of  his  diocese,  the  absentees  sending  valid 
excuses.  With  '  these  light  men  about  Aberdeen,  who  have  been 
ever  for  all  changes,'  as  Baillie  informed  Lauderdale,  the  reforming- 
ordinary  could  use  a  firmer  hand.^  He  restored  the  reader  and  the 
Psalm  Book  with  the  Form  of  Prayers,  and  improved  the  service  by 
enjoining  the  reader  to  observe  a  form  of  service  in  which  the  Pater- 
noster, Decalogue,  Doxology,  and  Creed  were  recited,  and  lessons 
from  the  Psalter  and  the  Testaments  were  read.  The  Synod  also 
agreed  to  appoint  morning  and  evening  prayers  in  the  larger  congre- 
gations in  the  diocese.  The  Directory  was  forbidden.  Private 
baptism  and  communion  were  permitted  in  certain  circumstances. 
The  bishop  required  that  the  resolutions  of  the  Presbyteries  in 
reference  to  discipline  should  be  ratified  by  himself;  that  canonical 
obedience  of  the  clergy  to  himself  be  given  ;  and  prayers  for  the 
King  and  bishops  by  name  be  made.'*  John  Menzies,  minister  of  Grey- 
friars,  and  Professor  of  Divinity  in  Marischal  College,  and  George 
Meldrum,  minister  of  the  second  charge  in  Aberdeen,  were  among 
the  few  who  at  first  refused  canonical  obedience,  but  the  deposition 
of  the  one  and  the  suspension  of  the  other  ultimately  brought  them 
into  ostensible  conformity,  until  the  test  of  1681  discovered  them 
again  in  a  recalcitrant  mood.  Mitchell  did  not  long  enjoy  his 
Episcopal  elevation,  dying  in  February  1663. 

During  all  this  turmoil,  the  foremost  ranks  of  the  Covenanters 


'  Row,  lilai);  425. 

^  Baillie  to  Lauderdale  :  Lauil.  Pap.,  iii.  477. 


2  Nicoll,  3S1. 

■•  Grub,  iii.  205,  for  authorities. 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  155 

were  being  decimated  by  death  or  defection.  Chancellor  Loudoun 
was  gathered  to  his  fathers,  and  the  hand  that  once  so  boldly  sub- 
scribed the  Covenant,  but  afterwards  gave  itself  to  vicious  acts,  was 
laid  in  the  aisle  of  Loudoun  Church  in  March  1662.  This  summer 
also  saw  Principal  Robert  Baillie  declining  to  his  grave,  and  con- 
fessing, 'I  tell  you,  my  heart  is  broken  with  grief."  Officially  he  Robert  BaiiUe 
had  welcomed  his  Grace  of  Glasgow  and  the  Privy  Council,  appro-  broken  heart, 
priately  offering  them  '  sack  and  ale.'  Conscience  permitted  no  other  '^"B"^'  '^^2- 
courtesy  to  the  hierarchy.  Every  reed  Baillie  had  leant  upon  had 
broken  and  pierced  his  trustful  heart.  Even  the  'dear  James'  Sharp, 
whom  he  applauded  as  '  the  most  wise,  honest,  diligent,  and  success- 
ful agent  of  the  nation  in  the  late  dangers  of  our  church,'  and  whom 
he  had  pleaded  with  to  help  his  '  old  friends  out  of  beggarie  and 
dyvorie  [bankruptcy],'  had  already  brought  ruin  on  these  starving 
scholars,  and  had  worse  to  offer — '  a  fearfull  persecution  ...  of  the 
old  Canterburian  stamp.' ^  The  pain  of  recording  the  gossip,  that 
'  Mr.  Sharp  had  bought  a  fair,  new  coach  at  London,  at  the  sides 
whereof  two  lakqueys  in  purple  does  run,'  was  nothing  to  the  con- 
fession that  the  same  'dear  James,'  'piece  by  piece,  in  so  cunning 
a  way  has  trepanned  us.'  Baillie's  last  letters  afford  sad  reading. 
Lauderdale,  to  whom  he  once  wrote  :  '  My  Lord,  ye  are  the  nobleman 
of  the  world  I  esteem  most  and  love  best,'  had  not  deigned  to  answer 
his  last  epistle.  The  zest  of  life  was  gone.  There  are  tears  as  he 
writes  :  '  I  care  for  no  vanities  ;  .  .  .  Go3  be  merciful  to  our  brethren 
who  hes  no  help  of  man,  nor  any  refuge  but  in  God  alone.'  Death 
was  welcome  '  in  these  very  hard  tymes,'  and  came  in  the  end  ol 
August  1662.  His  relict  and  children  reared  no  monument  to  mark 
his  grave.  No  portrait  of  him  exists.  His  many  works  are  his  best 
memorial.^     The  pen-portrait  of  Carlyle  is  characteristically  appre- 

'  Baillie  to  Lauderdale,  i8th  April  1661.  °  Letters,  iii.  473,  474. 

^  Ladensium  Aiitokatacrisis  .  .  .  1640;  A  Parallel  .  .  .  0/ Liturgie  with  the  Masse  Book 
.  .  .  1641  ;  An  Antidote  against  Arviinianisme  .  .  .  1641  ;  The  UnlawfuUnes  .  .  .  of  Prc- 
lacie  .  .  .  1641  ;  A  Dissuasive  from  the  Errors  of  the  Time  .  .  .  1645  ;  An  Hist.  Vindication 
of  the  Government  of  tlie  Church  .  .  .  1646,  1647  ;  Letters  andfournals,  1775,  1842  ;  Sennons  ; 
and  other  works. 


156  THE  COVENANTERS 

Cariyie's  ciative  :  'this  headlong,  warm-hearted,  blundering,  babbling,  "saga- 
Banue'.  °  cious  jolterhead  "  of  a  Baillie !  For  there  is  real  worth  in  him,  spite 
of  its  strange  guise  ;  something  of  the  Boswell ;  rays  of  clear  genial 
insight,  sunny  illumination,  which  alternate  curiously  with  such 
babblement,  oily  vehemence,  confused  hallucination,  and  sheer 
floundering  platitude  !  An  incongruous,  heterogeneous  man  ;  so  many 
inconsistencies,  all  united  in  a  certain  prime-element  of  most  turbid, 
but  genuine  and  fertile  radical  warmth.'^ 
Scoi/asui  'Scoria  sub   Cruce' — 'Scotland   under   the   Cross,'  was  the  sug- 

Crucc.  ....  ,  . 

gestive  title  which  Robert  Wodrow,  the  historian,  selected  for  his 
manuscript,-  which  he  published  with  the  title.  The  History  of  the 
Stifferings  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  from  the  Restoration  to  the 
Revolution^'  A  persistent  persecution  of  the  Covenanters  for  twenty- 
eight  years  began,  as  soon  as  the  Privy  Council  obtained  legal 
authority  and  means  to  exercise  a  spirit  which  showed  itself  to  be 
most  vindictive,  because  it  was  fed  on  the  memories  of  the  hardships 
borne  by  the  loyal  followers  of  Charles.  The  need  of  the  gentry, 
not  their  love  of  the  Carolan  policy,  accounts  for  the  excesses  into 
which  they  fell  in  expunging  nonconformity,  in  order  to  enrich 
themselves  and  their  minions  with  the  possessions  of  their  opponents. 
The  hierarchy  became  a  cabal  of  procurers  and  panders,  not  always 
cloaked  in  holy  vestments.  Where  the  carcase  was,  there  were  the 
vultures  also.  The  air  was  full  of  visions  of  forfeitures,  fairs  for 
favourites,  imposts  for  squanderers,  offices  for  idlers,  and  benefices 
for  the  disciples  of  Simon  Magus. 
Expulsion  of  On  the  7th  August,  Parliament  passed  a  special  Act  discharging 

from  the  ministry  in  Edinburgh  three  ministers,  Hamilton,  Smyth, 
and  Hutcheson  ;  and  the  Privy  Council  followed  this  Act  up  by 
ordering  them  and  all  other  nonconformists  out  of  town,  unless  they 
accepted  the  Government's  terms  before  October.  Only  Robert 
Lawrie,  thereafter  designated  '  The  Nest  Egg,'  remained  in  office, 
wherein  he  qualified  for  the  deanery  of  Edinburgh  and  the  see  of 

'  Carlyle,  Misc.^  vi.,  'Baillie  the  Covenanter."         -  Wodrow  MSS.,  xli.,  xlvii.,  xlviii.  uto). 
^  Edinburgh,  2  vols.,  fol.,  1721-3  ;  edit,  by  Rev.  Dr.  R.  liurns,  4  vols.,  Glasgow,  1835. 


parish 
ministers. 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  157 

Brechin.'  'They  choosed  rather  to  suffer  than  to  sin,'  said  their 
compatriot,  Robert  Douglas,  who  with  his  family  was  expelled  by  a 
macer  from  the  court.  He  had  been  invited  to  a  conference  with  the 
Chancellor  and  Bishop  Wishart,  who  hoped  to  convert  him  into 
compliance ;  but  he  refused  on  the  ground  that  '  they  were  setting  up 
men  who  would  tread  them  upon,  as  they  had  done  in  former  times.' 
The  prophecy  was  soon  verified.  The  Act  made  it  impossible  for 
professors  and  teachers  to  remain  in  office  without  the  approbation  of 
their  ordinaries.  In  October,  David  Dickson,  now  an  octogenarian, 
was  removed  from  his  professorship  of  divinity  and  charge  in  Edin- 
burgh, where  he  had  distinguished  himself  as  the  champion  of  the 
public  Resolutions,  a  hymnologist,  and  a  cultured  commentator." 

By  the  eviction  of  Donald  Cargill  from  the  parish  of  Barony,  Eviction  of 
Glasgow,  the  Government  created  a  source  of  disturbance  for  long  cargiii. 
years  to  come.  This  young  minister,  eldest  son  of  Laurence  Cargill 
of  Bonnytoun  of  Rattray,  Perthshire,  Notary  Public,  and  of  Marjory 
Blair,  was  a  student  of  St.  Salvator's  College  in  1645,  ^  licentiate 
of  St.  Andrews  Presbytery  in  1653,  and  was  called  to,  and  ordained 
in,  the  Barony  in  1655  in  succession  to  Zachary  Boyd.  He  was  so 
ardent  a  Presbyterian  that  on  Restoration  Day  he  prophetically 
declared  that  the  return  of  the  King  was  '  the  wofulest  sight  that  ever 
the  poor  Church  of  Scotland  saw.  Wo,  wo,  wo  to  him  ;  his  name 
shall  stink  while  the  world  stands,  for  treachery,  tyranny,  and 
leachery.'"  Heroic,  fiery,  affectionate,  clever,  eloquent,  of  swift  foot 
and  tough  constitution,  Cargill  was  the  leader  best  fitted  to  become 
the  ubiquitous  apostle  of  religious  rebellion.  His  happy  essays  at 
judgment  brought  him  the  credit  of  having  second  sight.  His 
marvellous  escapes  gave  him,  like  Peden,  the  character  of  one  who 
could  assume  the  coat  of  darkness.*  This  was  not  the  type  of  man  to 
seek  Episcopal  benediction.      For  this  and  other  alleged  irregularities 

1  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vi.  391  :  Act  37,  7th  August  1662. 

2  Commentary   on    Matthew  ;    Hebrews  ;    Psalms  ;    Epistles  ;    Therapeutica  Sacra  :    A 
Treatise  of  the  Promises,  are  among  his  works  :  Wodrow,  Select  Biog.,  ii.  5-15. 

•'  Patrick  Walker,   Life,  in   IJr.  D.    Hay  Fleming's  Six  Saints  of  the  Covenant  (Lond., 
igoi),  ii.  S.  ^  Ibid.,  ii.  1-62,  and  notes. 


158  THE  COVENANTERS 

the  Council,  when  in  Glasgow,  ordered  him  to  transport  himself  and 
his  household  be-north  of  Tay  before  the  first  of  November. 

Doom  of  The    young    Earl    of    Argyll    was    next   selected    for    sacrifice. 

Argyll  averted.  Middlcton,  who  had  an  eye  on  his  vast  domain,  had  Argyll  appre- 
hended, sent  down  to  Scotland,  and  tried  for  treasonable  expressions. 
On  26th  August  the  usual  doom  of  traitors  was  passed,  and  he  might 
have  gone  to  the  heading-block  had  not  Lauderdale,  his  surety,  and 
the  godfather  of  his  children,  obtained  from  the  King  a  remission  of 
his  sentence  in  June  1663.^  For  this  salvation  he  became  the  tool  of 
Lauderdale,  and,  as  a  Privy  Councillor,  forgot  his  own  peril  when  he 
saw  Cargill  and  other  martyrs  in  the  talons  of  their  captors. 

Two  notable  ministers  to  whom  the  Glasgow  Act  applied,  were 
John  Blackadder  of  Troqueer  and  his  neighbour,  John  Welsh  of 
Irongray.  Troqueer  church  overlooks  Dumfries  across  the  Nith. 
Irongray,  four  miles  from  that  town,  is  charmingly  situated  in  a 
pastoral  scene  hallowed  with  many  memories  of  the  Covenant.  Of 
the  twenty-one  members  of  the  Presbytery  of  Dumfries,  only  two 

Eviction  of      conformed.      Blackadder  occupied  his  pulpit  till  the  last  Sabbath  of 

Blackadder  October,  and  on  that  occasion  enlarged  on  the  sin  of  intruding 
hireling  curates  on  Christ's  flock,  and  of  compliance  with  the  order  of 
eviction.  The  auditors  were  in  tears.  An  alarm  was  raised  that  the 
horse-guards  were  approaching  to  seize  him.  He  retired,  but  returned 
to  advise  his  friends  to  disperse  quietly.  Leaving  his  wife  and  young 
family  in  the  manse,  he  sought  shelter  in  the  house  of  William 
Fergusson  of  Caitloch,  in  Glencairn,  a  staunch  Covenanter.  Next 
Sabbath  morning,  thinking  to  catch  Blackadder,  Turner  and  the 
guardsmen  revisited  the  manse.  The  scene  left  an  ineffaceable 
impression  on  one  of  the  minister's  sons — the  guards  in  the  yard 
cursing  and  blaspheming :  the  children  hidden  in  a  loft :  this  boy 
peering  through  a  chink  to  view  the  roaring  scene,  'a  murdering 
ruffian  '  below  detects  the  tiny  face,  draws,  thrusts,  and,  just  by  '  scarce 
an  inch,'  misses  the  chink  and  glittering  eye.  The  manse  was 
emptied,  the  little  ones  packed  in  cadgers'  creels,  and  as  the  evicted 
'  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  380,  381,  387  ;  Mackenzie,  Memoirs,  70  ;  Nicoll,  393. 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  159 

family  made  for  Glencairn,  one  of  the  children  cried  through  the 
Brigen', '1  'm  banish't,  I'm  banish't;  Byte-the-Sheep  has  banish't  me.'* 
Blackadder,  in  his  flight,  appears  to  have  witnessed  the  eviction  of  Expulsion  of 
Welsh.  This  John  Welsh  was  the  son  of  Josias  Welsh,  minister  in  J"''"  ^^""='^''- 
Templepatrick,  grandson  of  John  Welsh  of  Ayr,  and  great-grandson 
of  John  Knox.  He  was  by  heredity  a  Reformer,  and  of  the  stuff 
saints  and  martyrs  are  made  of  In  his  sermons  he  had  not  minced 
words,  and  styled  the  Estates  'a  drunken  parliament.'  Such  freedom 
of  expression  was  not  to  be  tolerated.  The  Stewart-depute,  Maxwell 
of  Munches,  a  Papist,  was  ordered  to  bring  his  parish  minister  into 
Edinburgh.  With  some  discretion  he  permitted  Welsh  to  fulfil  his 
duties  at  a  communion  at  Holywood,  an  adjoining  parish,  on  a 
Sacrament  Monday.  The  crowds  of  dalesmen  and  women  who 
accompanied  him  home  would  have  defended  him  if  necessary,  had 
he  not  wished  to  go  peaceably  with  his  guards.  An  extraordinary 
scene  occurred  on  the  green  banks  of  the  Cluden,  where  he  was 
to  take  horse.  The  other  ministers  gathered  round  him,  knelt  and 
prayed.  The  excited  people  groaned  and  cried.  They  held  him 
there.  He  had  to  dash  across  the  ford,  only  to  be  chased  by  the 
crowd  of  wailing  men  and  women,  who  followed  the  cavalcade  a  long- 
way.  After  compearing  before  the  Committee  of  Parliament,  he  was 
put  under  surveillance,  and  was  ultimately  dismissed  in  June  1663.'- 

These  are  not  solitary  instances  of  the  tyranny  in  vogue.      In  order  Parliament 
to  strike  terror  into  western  dissenters,  a  number  of  the  prominent  niiniTte"s 
pastors  were  selected  for  examination  before  Parliament  re-assembled,  ^^^y  '^^2. 
At  the  end  of  May  1662,  while  Parliament  was  in  session,  the  Com- 
missioner   and    Lords    of  Articles    had    summoned    John    Carstairs, 
St.  Mungo's  Collegiate  Church,  Glasgow,  James  Naismith,  Hamilton, 
Matthew  Mowat,  and  James  Rowat,  of  the  first  and  second  charges, 
Kilmarnock,  Alexander  Blair,  Galston,  James  Veitch,  Mauchline,  and 
William  Adair,  Ayr,  to  sign  the  oath  of  allegiance,  which  they  were 
willing  to  do  with  the  explanation  that  the  King's  authority  did  not 
extend  to  things  spiritual.     Otherwise  their  loyalty  was  unimpeach- 

'  Blackadder,  Memoirs,  857,  91.  -'  /i/ui.,  89  note. 


i6o  THE  COVENANTERS 

able,  and  to  prove  it,  all,  except  Adair,  subscribed  a  paper  to  that 
Ministers  in      effect.     They  compeared  before  Parliament,   which  considered  their 

prison.  ^ 

scruples  to  be  treasonable,  and  relegated  all  but  Adair  to  the  foul 
cells,  where  they  lay  till  i6th  September,  when  they  were  discharged 
under  another  sentence  of  deposition  and  eviction  of  themselves  and 
families  from  their  respective  parishes.'  Carstairs,  a  man  of  herculean 
strength,  who  could  exhort  as  many  as  fourteen  tables  at  one  com- 
munion, left  the  prison  wrecked  in  health.  The  suave  bishop, 
Leighton,  was  sent  to  try  and  conciliate  the  prisoners,  only  to  be 
taunted  with  his  own  apostasy  and  defections  by  these  honester 
sufferers  for  conscience'  sake. 

Thomas  Wyiie.  Thomas  Wylie,  a  protege  of  Loudoun,  and  formerly  minister  at 
Mauchline,  where  he  stood  against  the  King  and  Middleton  in  the 
Mauchline  Moor  fray,  now  that  he  was  translated  to  disaffected 
Kirkcudbright,  was  a  marked  man  to  be  tested  in  a  personal  com- 
pearance at  Edinburgh.  Wylie  for  a  time  kept  out  of  the  way, 
and  refused  to  seek  collation  and  to  take  the  oath.  Ultimately  he 
succumbed  to  the  pressure  of  the  authorities,  and  removed  with  his 
family  from  the  parish,  not  without  leaving  on  record  a  list  of  the 
lamentable  evils  entailed  on  the  Church.- 

HiighM'Kaii.  The  Act  encouraging  spies  soon  served  its  intended  purpose,  and 
among  the  first  reported  on  was  Hugh  M'Kail,  then  chaplain  to 
Sir  James  Stuart  of  Kirkfield,  at  one  time  Provost  of  Edinburgh, 
and  father  of  James,  a  dangerous  opponent  of  the  Government." 
The  usual  seditious  speeches  and  acts  were  attributed  to  M'Kail. 

The  youth  had  preached  an  offensive  political  sermon,  possibly 
too  true,  and  Sir  James  and  his  son  Walter  had  been  hearers  that 
day.  Walter,  too,  had  made  a  fiery  remark  or  two  in  a  smithy.  All 
three  were  summoned.  Sir  James  cleared  himself;  M'Kail  fled 
abroad  ;  Walter  compeared,  and  the  Council,  thinking  his  explanation 
weak,  sent  him  to  the  Tolbooth.'*      Lying  in  the  same  noisome  prison 

'  VVodrow,  Hist.^  i.  294-6.  -  Ibid.,  300-3. 

'  Afterwards  joint-author  oi  Naphtah\  and  Lord  Advocate. 
'  Wodrow,  Hist.,  i.  304  :  iith  November. 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  i6i 

was    lohn    Brown,    minister    of    Wamphray,    in    the    presbytery    of  John  Brown 

-•  '  ,  1  /-  J  of  Wamphray, 

Lochmaben,  a  graduate  of  Edinburgh,  an  ardent  Covenanter  and  an  ,6io?-i679. 
erudite  theologian.  In  his  native  Galloway  he  had  won  the  heart 
of  Samuel  Rutherford  on  account  of  his  faithful  discipleship,  or  of 
similarity  of  uncompromising  views,  so  that  Rutherford  said  of  him  : 
'  I  never  could  get  my  love  off  that  man.  I  think  Christ  has  some- 
thing to  do  with  him.'  The  manly  spirit  in  him  could  not  help 
expressing  itself  in  contempt  of  his  weak-kneed  co-presbyters  who 
acknowledged  diocesan  Episcopacy,  and  he  publicly  styled  them 
knaves  and  villains.  Five  weeks'  incarceration  in  November  and 
December  brought  him  to  death's  door.  After  petitioning  for  liberty, 
and  agreeing  to  leave  the  country  and  not  to  return  without  a  licence 
under  pain  of  death,  he  was  released.  At  first  he  was  too  poor  to 
buy  a  passage.  Across  the  seas,  the  inspiration  of  kindred  spirits, 
rebels  and  the  ostracised,  kept  his  powerful  and  untiring  pen  writing 
in  English  and  Latin  those  able  and  damaging  works,  which  forced 
King  Charles  in  1676  to  demand  from  the  States  of  Holland  the 
expulsion  of  Brown,  Robert  Mac  Ward,  and  Colonel  James  Wallace.* 
It  was  an  irreparable  loss  to  theological  learning  and  to  Scotland 
when  a  cruel  fate  forced  this  gifted  scholar  to  become  a  mere  polemic, 
devoting  his  talents  to  the  petty  measuring  out  of  the  '  mint,  anise, 
and  cummin  '  for  the  ordinary  sacrifice,  while  the  '  weightier  matters 
of  the  law '  were  left  without  an  interpreter.  His  extant  works 
prove  the  vast  capabilities  of  this  accomplished  Calvinist.'" 

Citations  were  directed  to  the  following  ministers,  as  well  as  to  Ministers 
local  magistrates,  ordering  them  to  ensure  the  compearance  of  the  ^""""°"^  • 
accused  in  the  Capital  on  9th  December:  John  Livingstone,  Ancrum  ; 
Samuel  Austin,    Penpont ;  John   Nevay,    Newmills  ;  John   Carstairs, 
St.   Mungo,   Glasgow  ;  Matthew  Mowat,  Kilmarnock  ;  Robert  Trail, 

'  Wodrow,  Hist.,  i.  305. 

'■^  Scott,    Fasti,  ii.    663  ;    Walker,   Scot.    TheoL,  24,   48,   107,   144 ;    M'Crie,    Veitch,   362, 
etc.     Brown  died  in  exile  in  1679.      His  chief  works  are  :  An  Apologetical  Relation,  .  .  . 
1665  ;     The    Banders    Disba?ided  ;    Libri    Duo,  .  .  .   1670;     Apology  .  .  .for    Persecuted 
Ministers,  .  .  .   1677  ;  Christ  the   Way,  .  .  .   1677;  Quakerisme,  .  .  .   1678;   The  History  of 
the  Indulgence,  .  .  .  1 678  ;  and  several  others. 

VOL.  II.  X 


i62  THE  COVENANTERS 

Edinburgh  ;  James  Naismith,  Hamilton  ;  Andrew  Cant,  senior,  and 
Andrew  Cant,  junior,  Aberdeen ;  John  Menzies,  Aberdeen  ;  George 
Meldrum,  Aberdeen  ;  Alexander  Gordon,  Inveraray  ;  John  Cameron, 
Kilfinan ;  James  Gardiner,  Saddle.  Among  others  who  were  sum- 
moned for  examination  were:  Gilbert  Rule;  John  Drysdale;  Alexander 
Dunlop,  Paisley;  James  Warner,  Balmaclellan.  Livingstone,  Trail, 
and  Gardiner  were  duly  examined  on  the  nth  December  by  the 
John  Council.     Livingstone  recorded  the  procedure  observed.     Questioned 

Livingstone,  111  1 

1603-1672.  regardmg  his  scruples  to  keep  Restoration  Day,  and  to  take  the  Oath 
of  Allegiance,  he  declared  that  he  had  no  clearness  that  God  approved 
of  anniversary  holy  days,  and  that  he  did  acknowledge  the  King  to  be 
the  supreme  civil  governor.  This  implied  that  Presbytery  had  co- 
ordinate jurisdiction  in  spiritual  affairs — a  recrudescence  of  the  odious 
dogmas  of  the  Knox-Buchanan  school.  The  judges  were  satisfied, 
and  sentenced  Livingstone  to  banishment,  and  to  lie  in  prison  till  his 
ship  sailed  to  Rotterdam,  unless  he  signed  an  assent  to  the  sentence. 
His  crave  for  permission  to  return  and  say  farewell  to  his  wife  and 
family  was  refused.  With  that  noble  spirit  so  seldom  credited  to  the 
Covenanters,  Livingstone  replied  to  his  doomsters  :  '  Well,  although 
it  be  not  permitted  me  that  I  should  breathe  in  my  native  air,  yet  I 
trust,  what  part  of  the  world  so  ever  I  go  to,  I  shall  not  cease  to  pray 
for  a  blessing  to  these  lands,  to  his  Majesty,  and  the  government, 
and  the  inferior  magistrates  thereof,  but  especially  to  the  land  of  my 
nativitie.'  Filled  with  the  same  Christian  spirit,  he  wrote  to  his  flock 
admonishing  them  '  to  love  and  help  one  another,  have  a  care  to  breed 
your  children  to  know  the  Lord,  and  to  keep  themselves  unspotted 
from  the  pollutions  of  ane  evill  world.  .  .  .  Let  ane  care  be  had  of 
the  poor  and  sick.'  In  a  later  letter  he  adjured  the  flock  not  to 
molest  the  intruded  curate  :  '  As  for  the  poor  wretch  that  is  thrust  in 
upon  you,  do  not  hate  him,  do  not  injure  him,  rather  pray  for  him, 
and  use  means  if  it  be  possible,  that  he  may  recover  :  but  do  not 
countenance  or  join  with  him  :  ye  may  easily  be  sensible  that  he  is 
not  a  messenger  from  the  Lord  for  your  spiritual  good.'  Livingstone 
left  his  fatherland  grieving  that  he  had  not  lifted  up  a  louder  voice  in 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  i6 


o 


defence  of  the  faith  and   in   opposition  to  defections.      Livingstone 
died  in  Rotterdam  on  9th  Aus^ust  1672,  aged  sixty-nine.' 

Trail  and  Nevay,  not  to  be  bent,  subscribed  the  order  for  banish-  Fate  of  other 
ment,  'and  not  to  return,  under  the  pain  of  death  ' ;  but  Menzies  and^^"^^' 
Meldrum  showed  a  faint  heart  and  signed  the  Oath  of  Allegiance. 
Cameron  found  shelter  as  chaplain  to  Locheil  in  the  ruined  castle 
of  Inverlochy.  Austin  appears  to  have  retired  to  quiet  Penpont, 
where  he  rests.  Gordon  for  a  time  was  left  unmolested.  Dunlop, 
father  of  Principal  Dunlop,  as  became  a  Protester  refused  the  Oath 
and  was  confined  to  Culross.  He  died  in  Bo'ness  in  his  forty-seventh 
year,  the  defeat  at  Pentland  having  hastened  his  end.  In  Rotterdam 
the  exiles  formed  that  remarkable  coterie  of  '  fiery  instruments  '  which 
kept  Scotland  lively  for  many  years  by  their  writings  and  intrigues. 

Similar  evictions  were  carried  out  in  several  counties,  but  the  Evictions  of 
purgation  was  greatest  in  the  Synods  of  Glasgow  and  Ayr,  Dumfries,  ^lergy. 
Galloway,  Lothian  and  Tweeddale,  and  Merse  and  Teviotdale. 
Various  calculations  have  been  made  regarding  the  number  of  parish 
ministers  deprived  through  the  introduction  of  Episcopacy,  Wodrow 
reckoning  'near  four  hundred ' ;  Burnet,  350;  Brown,  'the  third  part 
of  the  ministry,'  i.e.  320;  Mr.  W.  L.  Mathieson,  271  from  1660  to 
1666.°  The  Rev.  Robert  Logan's  table,  compiled  from  Scott's  Fasit, 
makes  out  952  charges,  of  which  72  were  vacant.  The  ministers  of 
329  were  deprived,  and  551  adhered.'  Probably  not  more  than  200 
manses  were  emptied  up  till  the  end  of  1662,  in  the  Synods  under- 
noted  : — 


Synod  of  Glasgow  and  Ayr, 

63 

Synod 

of  Aberdeen, 

6 

Dumfries, 

30 

Ross,     . 

3 

Galloway, 

23 

Angus  and  Mearns, 

I 

Lothian  and  Tweeddale, 

23 

Orkney, 

I 

Merse  and  Teviotdale,  . 

19 

Glenelg, 

0 

Fife,       .... 

lO 

Moray,  . 

0 

Argyle,  .... 

12 

Sutherland,    . 

0 

Perth  and  Stirling, 

II 

Zetland, 

0 
20? 

'  Wodrow,  //isi.,  i.  310-2  ;  Select  Biog.^  '  Life,'  i.  190-241. 

'  Politics  and  Religion,  ii.  193  note.        ^  The  United  Free  Church  App-,  213  (£din.,  1906). 


164 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Andrew 
Donaldson. 


'  The  King's 
Curates.' 


Many  of  the  more  timid  and  peaceable  clergy  remained  in  their 
offices  without  conforming  in  strict  legality,  being  overlooked  for  a 
time  through  the  influence  of  friends  at  Court — a  notable  instance 
being  William  Guthrie  of  Fenwick.  The  Privy  Council,  learning  that 
few  ministers  in  Dumfries  and  Galloway  had  conformed,  issued 
warrants  ordering  thirteen  ministers  in  the  Presbytery  of  Kirkcud- 
bright, six  in  Stranraer,  six  in  Wigtown,  and  two  in  Dumfries  to  cease 
their  work,  give  up  the  ministry,  remove  themselves  and  their  house- 
holds beyond  the  bounds  of  their  respective  Presbyteries,  before  the 
20th  day  of  March,  and  to  compear  before  the  Council  for  their  acts 
of  disobedience.'  A  similar  warrant  was  sent  to  fourteen  ministers 
in  the  Synods  of  Fife,  Perth,  and  Stirling,  among  whom  was  the 
estimable  and  typical  Covenanter,  Andrew  Donaldson,  pastor  at 
Dalgety.  Donaldson's  friend  and  patron,  the  Earl  of  Dunfermline, 
who  got  his  summons  cancelled  by  the  King,  was  not  able  to  keep 
Donaldson  in  his  parish  after  Sharp  astutely  got  an  Act  passed 
preventing  restored  ministers  returning  to  their  former  charges. 
Donaldson  was  suspended  by  the  Synod,  but  continued  preaching. 
The  Synod  proceeded  to  depose  him  in  October  1664.  He  still 
officiated,  his  flock  remaining  staunch  to  him  in  spite  of  heavy  finings. 
He  had  to  seek  safety  wandering  about — a  homeless  conventicler, 
put  to  the  horn  in  July  1674,  intercommuned  two  years  later,  taken 
and  immured  in  Linlithgow  prison  for  a  year,  indulged,  and  living 
on  after  the  Restoration.  He  had  the  satisfaction  of  being  reinstated 
in  his  church  and  manse.     He  died  after  1693." 

On  the  failure  of  the  patrons  to  nominate  successors  to  these 
honourable  pastors,  the  Church  had  difficulty  in  filling  the  vacancies  ; 
and  now  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  ordinaries  promoted  ignorant, 
worthless,  contemptible  creatures,  well  nicknamed  '  The  King's 
Curates.'  Contemporary  authorities  of  various  parties  are  unanimous 
on  this  point.  Burnet  is  not  too  bitter  when  he  records  :  '  They  were 
the  worst  preachers  I  ever  heard  :  they  were  ignorant  to  a  reproach  : 


'  Wodrow,  Hist.,  i.  362. 

''  Ibid.,'\.  409;  ii.  325,  343  ;  iii.  152  ;  Ross,  OUmpses,  222-35  i  App.,  239. 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  165 

and  many  of  them  were  openly  vicious.  They  were  a  disgrace  to 
orders,  and  the  sacred  functions  :  and  were  indeed  the  dregs  and 
refuse  of  the  northern  parts.' '  Kirkton  corroborates  Burnet,  declar- 
ing that  they  were  '  a  sort  of  young  lads  unstudied  and  unbred,  who 
hade  all  the  properties  of  Jeroboams  priests  .  .  .  and  so  profane  and 
void  of  conscience  themselves  that  they  believed  there  were  none  in 
any  other.  ...  A  gentleman  in  the  north  cursed  the  Presbyterian 
ministers,  because,  said  he,  since  they  left  their  churches,  wee  cannot 
get  a  lad  to  keep  our  cows,  they  turn  all  ministers.'"  Tweeddale 
described  them  to  Lauderdale  as  '  insufficient,  scandalous,  impudent 
fellows.'^  It  is  satisfactory  now  to  know  that  the  almost  incredible 
statements  uttered  by  Stewart,  Stirling,  Brown,  Wellwood,  Shields,  * 
and  commonly  supposed  to  be  gendered  in  Covenanting  hatred  and 
spite,  were  substantiated  by  Sir  Robert  Moray,  Lauderdale's  depute,  sir  Roben 
who,  after  personal  inquiry  and  observation,  concluded  that  it  was'^^°j^^ 
impossible  to  support  such  ignorant  and  scandalous  men,  '  unless  the 
greatest  part  of  them  could  be  turned  out.'^ 

The  evicted  clergy  harangued  the  people  on  the  sin  of  intrusion.  Riots  at 
Apart  from  this,  it  is  not  natural  to  expect  that  the  Scottish  temper  '^'^"'^'^*''^^- 
would  have  tamely  submitted  to  these  cruel  and  unwarrantable  acts  of 
tyranny,  and  the  substitution  of  lewd  clodpates  for  their  loved  and 
learned  leaders.  In  Irongray,  men  and  women  convened  to  prevent 
the  serving  of  the  edict  regarding  Welsh  ;  and  William  Arnot  of  Little- 
park,  drawing  his  sword  as  he  placed  his  back  to  the  church  door, 
cried  out  boldly  :  '  Let  me  see  who  will  place  a  minister  here  this  day.' 
Another  ebullition  occurred  when  Bernard  Saunderson  came  from  the 
neighbouring  parish  of  Keir,  accompanied  by  his  co-presbyters  and  an 
armed  bodyguard,  to  fill  Welsh's  pulpit.  A  crowd  of  women,  generalled 
by  Margaret  Smith,  occupied  the  walled-in  churchyard,  a  natural 
coign  of  vantage,  and,  after  a  hot  skirmish  of  stones  easily  got  from 
the  Cluden,  made  the  prelatic  intruders  beat  a  hasty  retreat.* 

1  Hist.,  i.  375.  2  Hist.,  i6o-i.  =  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  207. 

*  Dodds,  Fifty  Years,  124;  cf.  Naphtali,  iig,  135,  301,  302  ;   Brown,  Apol.  Narr.,  270; 
Wellwood,  Sermon  on  1  Peter  iv.  18  ;  Burnet,  i.  379,  441  ;   Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  20. 
^  Wodrow,  i.  365-7  ;  Blackadder,  Memoirs,  102  note  ;  Kirkton,  162. 


i66  THE  COVENANTERS 

Origin  of  the  A  Similar  riot  occurred  on  the  attempt  to  settle  John  J  affray  of 

Rfsing."^  Monquhitter  in  Kirkcudbright,  early  in  1663.  The  Council  took  the 
matter  up  in  May,  and  appointed  a  committee  consisting  of  Linlith- 
gow, Galloway,  Annandale,  Drumlanrig,  and  Wauchope  of  Niddrie 
(Montrose  and  Eglinton  were  afterwards  added),  to  proceed  to  the 
district,  to  bring  the  offenders  to  justice,  and  to  inquire  if  all  the 
officials  had  obeyed  the  recent  statutes.  One  hundred  horse  and  two 
hundred  foot  of  the  Guards  were  told  off  to  accompany  the  Com- 
mission and  to  exact  for  themselves  free  quarters  and  generous  pay 
for  officers  and  men.  This  order  inaugurated  the  policy  of  repression 
by  arms  which  resulted  in  the  Galloway  Rising.  The  Commission 
first  sat  at  Kirkcudbright  on  25th  May,  and  examined  Lord  Kirk- 
cudbright (who  was  a  Protester  and  old  friend  of  Wariston),  John 
Carsan  of  Senwick,  and  John  Euart  (the  latter  two  having  formerly 
acted  as  provosts  of  the  burgh),  and  also  thirty-three  widows  and 
servants.  They  decerned  that  the  three  magistrates,  being  privy  to 
the  revolt,  and  five  women  rioters  should  be  apprehended  and  removed 
to  Edinburgh  for  trial,  while  other  fourteen  women  should  be  put 
in  the  local  bridewell  till  they  found  caution  for  their  compearance 
before  the  Council.  Some  men  went  to  prison  for  their  wives.  The 
Commission  examined  the  Irongray  delinquents  at  Dumfries  on  30th 
May,  and  remitted  Arnot  to  Edinburgh  for  trial,  sending  George  Rome 
of  Beoch  to  prison  till  he  found  caution  to  appear  when  called  on. 
As  a  penalty  for  undiscovered  culprits,  they  quartered  soldiery  on  the 
parish,  and  exacted  a  bond  of  one  hundred  pounds  from  the  heritors. 
The  trial  in  August  resulted  in  Carsan  and  Arnot  being  respectively 
fined  eight  thousand  and  five  thousand  merks — Arnot  being  forced 
to  stand  two  Sabbaths  in  the  public  place  of  repentance  in  Irongray 
Church.  Euart  was  finally  sentenced  to  banishment.  The  five 
women  from  Kirkcudbright,  Agnes  Maxwell,  Marion  Brown,  Jean 
Rennie,  Christian  M'Cavers,  and  Janet  Biglaw,  were  ordered  home 
to  stand  for  two  market-days  at  the  Cross  of  Kirkcudbright,  with  a 
placard  on  each  face  announcing  the  crime,  and  the  magistrates  were 
empowered  to  scourge  and  banish  the  criminals  if  they  tried  to  evade 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH  167 

this   doom.       After    sixteen    weeks'    imprisonment,    and    on    finding 
caution,  the  male  vicarious  sufferers  were  released/ 

It  was  while  this  Commission  was  visiting  Galloway  that  the  The  Earision 
incident  occurred  which  brought  so  much  distress  upon  William 
Gordon,  laird  of  Earlston  in  Dairy,  to  be  afterwards  referred  to.^  The 
family  of  Gordon  was  strong  in  the  Glenkens,  and  the  Earlston  Gordons 
had  favoured  Lollardy  and  other  reform  movements.  They  had  also  an 
influential  local  connection  by  marriage.  John  M'Michan,  minister  of 
Dairy,  was  evicted,  and  the  bishop  presented  George  Henry  to  the 
vacant  charge.  The  Commissioners  enjoined  Earlston  to  take  steps 
to  have  the  presentee  settled.  Earlston  replied,  on  22nd  May, 
declining  the  order,  refusing  to  intrude,  claiming  the  right  of 
patronage,  and  stating  that  he  too  had  nominated  a  pastor.  They 
replied  citing  him  to  the  Council  to  answer  for  contempt.^  Before 
leaving  Kirkcudbright  the  Commission  appointed  a  bench  of  loyal 
magistrates  under  heavy  caution,  and  left  a  party  of  the  Guards  to 
aid  them  in  keeping  order. 

It  was  soon  manifest  that  the  would-be  religious  King  and  Council 
were  not  to  brook  bucolic  pietists  interfering  with  their  sacred  pre- 
rogatives and  mission,  or  thwarting  their  infallible  purposes. 

A  remarkable  and  unique  personage  came  into  prominence  at  this  Pedenthe 
critical  time.  Alexander  Peden  (1626-86),  Pethein,  or  Peathine,  was  a  illl-iGse. 
native  of  Auchincloich,  in  the  parish  of  Mauchline  (now  Sorn).  Like 
his  ancestry  he  was  a  bonnet-laird.  He  studied  in  Glasgow,  and 
before  entering  the  ministry  became  a  teacher  and  precentor  in 
Tarbolton  and  Fenwick.  He  was  appointed  minister  of  the  Moor- 
kirk  of  Glenluce  in  1660.  He  did  not  conform  and  was  deprived  in 
1662.  Nevertheless,  according  to  the  charge  preferred  against  him 
by  the  Privy  Council  on  24th  February  1663,  he  continued  in  his 
office,  '  labouring  to  keep  the  hearts  of  the  people  from  the  present 
government  in  Church  and  State.'    At  length,  compelled  to  desist,  he 

'  Wodrow,  i.  364-8. 

■'  The  Castle  of  Earlston  still  stands.     It  bears  the  inscription  '  1655,  W.  G.  M.  H.' 

'■'  Wodrow,  i.  369. 


landers 
incensed. 


i68  THE  COVENANTERS 

finished  his  parochial  ministry  with  a  dramatic  climax.  His  sorrowful 
flock  came  to  church  to  hear  his  farewell  discourses.  From  morn  till 
night  he  continued  preaching,  the  hearers  the  while  sobbing  incessantly, 
all  the  more  that  he  prophesied  that  they  would  never  see  his  face  in 
that  pulpit  again,  for  he  was  to  become  a  homeless  vagrant  for  his 
Master's  cause.  Then  he  lifted  the  sacred  book  to  bear  it  away,  and 
closed  the  pulpit  door.  '  He  knocked  hard  upon  it  three  times  with 
his  Bible,  saying  three  times  over,  "  I  arrest  thee  in  my  Master's 
name,  and  never  none  enter  thee,  but  such  as  come  in  at  the  door,  as 
I  did."'  This  malison  rested  on  the  pulpit  long  after  Peden's  death, 
his  first  successor  being  William  Kyle,  in  1693.^ 
The  Low-  The  migrations  through  the  south-west  of  Scotland  of  so  many 

reputable,  influential,  and  dogged  opponents  of  the  new  repressive 
policy  made  the  Lowlands  lively,  and  created  the  necessity  for  the 
installation  of  a  government  agent  as  unique  and  as  notorious  as  the 
elusive  Peden.  It  was  in  September  1663  that  the  despot.  Sir  James 
Turner,  was  sent  to  the  south  to  quell  the  disturbances.  The  vexa- 
tion consequent  on  the  operation  of  the  obnoxious  statutes  was  not 
confined  to  embittered  Presbyterians.  The  less  scrupulous  opponents 
of  Episcopacy  showed  antipathy  in  an  offensive  way.  Church  doors 
were  locked  in  the  incumbent's  face :  the  tongues  of  bells  were  removed 
to  make  the  hour  of  worship  uncertain  :  the  intruded  pastors  were 
terrified  by  rough-tongued  men  or  stone-throwing  termagants  who 
adjured  them  to  stay  away  and  ruin  no  more  souls  :  an  ingenious 
herd-lad  emptied  a  box  full  of  pismires  into  a  curate's  boots,  so  as 
to  torment  him  during  service  ;  and  even  more  vulgar  and  vicious 
pranks  were  played  upon  the  unhappy  presentees."  On  the  other 
hand,  the  decorous  multitudes  of  worshippers  who  gathered  to  hear 
the  evicted  clergy  soon  became  armed  convocations  of  the  lieges. 

'  Wodrow,  Hist,  ii.  4  ;  iii.  73-5  ;  iv.  396  ;  Analecla,  ii.  85,  86  ;  Walker,  Some  Remarkable 
Passages,  etc.,  in  Fleming,  Six  Saints,  i.  1-177  ;  •'•  '29. 
2  Kirkton,  161. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    169 


CHAPTER   XXIII 

THE    RULE    OF    ROTHES    AND   THE    RISING   OF   RULLION    GREEN 

In  June  1663,   Holyrood  House  once  more  resounded  with  revelry  The  mission 

/-<••  T->i  iir>  c    c  '~'^  Lauderdale, 

when  the  new  Commissioner,  Rothes,  and  the  Secretary  of  State,  june  1663. 
Lauderdale,  took  up  residence  there.  Lauderdale  had  returned  to 
displace  Middleton,  to  undo  the  Billeting  business,  to  make  vengeance 
overtake  Wariston,  for  whom  formerly  he  had  owned  'great  friend- 
ship,' to  guide  Parliament  in  framing  repressive  measures  for 
dissenters,  to  take  the  conceit  out  of  the  Church  dignitaries,  and 
generally  to  advance  his  own  interests  by  proving  to  the  King  how 
clever  and  indispensable  he  was.  His  first  step  in  debasing  Middle- 
ton  was  the  promotion  of  the  bibulous  Rothes  to  be  Commissioner ; 
and  his  second  was  his  personal  compearance  in  Parliament  to  get 
the  crafty  Acts  of  his  rival  expunged  from  the  Statute  Book. 

John  Leslie,  seventh  Earl  and  first  Duke  of   Rothes,  a  coarse,  The  Duke  of 

....  ,  1       •  •  11  1-1  •       1     1         •  1       Rothes,  1630- 

illiterate  boor,  salacious  in  talk  and  indecent  in  behaviour,  was  the  ,681. 
agent  best  fitted  to  give  effect  to    the   atrocities    conceived    in   the 
cunning  brain  of  Archbishop  Sharp.     His  greed  of  gain  made  him 
a  tool  most  amenable  to  a    persecutor.      His    carnal    characteristics 
distinguished  him  as  the  type  of  man  the  King  loved.     He  roguishly 
excused   his   own  uncleanness  of   life  by  asserting  that  '  the   King's 
Commissioner  ought  to  represent  his  person.' '     When  Rothes  arrived  Session  of 
to    preside,   on    i8th    June,    in    the    third    session    of  Charles's   first  ,5^, 
Parliament,    167  members   met,  including  2  archbishops,  8  bishops, 
I    duke,    I    marquis,    35    earls,    4    viscounts,    26    lords,    48    county 
members,    and    42    representatives    of  burghs.       Rothes    intimated 

'   Burnet,  i.  374-5. 
VOL.   II.  Y 


I70  THE  COVENANTERS 

the  King's  desire  for  the  restoration  of  the  Lords  of  Articles — the 
preparatory  committee  on  business — a  step  which,  by  the  aid  of  the 
bishops'  votes,  threw   the   legislative  initiative  and   power   into  the 
hands  of  the  King  and  his  advisers.^ 
Johnston,  While  the  Estates  were  in  session,  a  distinguished  Covenanter  lay 

LordWariston.  jj^  ^^le  Tolbooth— a  political  victim  tied  to  the  horns  of  the  altar. 
This  was  none  other  than  Lord  Wariston.  Long  a  fugitive  abroad 
under  sentence  of  death,  Wariston  was  tracked  by  English  spies  to 
Rouen,  where  he  was  apprehended,  and,  on  a  writ  of  extradition, 
brought  to  London.  While  in  Holland,  according  to  Brown  of 
Wamphray,  an  authority  likely  to  know,  Wariston  had  been  cupped 
with  evil  intent  by  Dr.  Bates,  a  royal  physician,  and  left  a  wreck, 
weak,  despondent,  deprived  of  memory.-  Middleton,  who,  with 
Dumfries  and  Secretary  Bennet,  examined  him  in  London,  found  him 
to  be  the  most  timorous  man  he  had  ever  seen,  and  suspected  him 
of  shamming.^  He  was  sent  to  Edinburgh  by  sea  and  escorted  to 
the  Tolbooth  with  the  usual  indignity  shown  to  traitors.  On  8th 
July  he  was  brought  to  the  bar  of  Parliament  to  hear  the  doom 
pronounced  in  1661,  sending  him  to  death  by  rope  and  axe  at  the 
Market  Cross.*  During  this  judicial  interlude,  according  to  Mackenzie, 
he  was  'running  up  and  down  upon  his  knees  begging  mercy.'' 
Lauderdale  also  informed  Moray  of  this  wretched  exhibition  :  '  I 
have  often  heard  of  a  man  feared  out  of  his  wits,  but  never  saw  it 
before ;  yet  what  he  said  was  good  sense  enough,  but  he  roared  and 
cried  and  expressed  more  fear  than  ever  I  saw.'"^  His  judges  asked 
him  if  he  had  any  reason  to  crave  a  delay  of  his  execution.  In  a 
voice  broken  with  sobs  he  replied  that  '  his  memory  was  lost,  that 
he  remembered  neither  matter  of  law,  nor  matter  of  fact,  nor  a  word 
of  the  bible ' ;  and  he  begged  a  postponement  so  that  ministers  and 
physicians  might  prepare  him  for  his  end."  The  more  humane  of 
the   Parliament-men   would  have  delayed  his  execution,  but  Lauder- 

'  Alt  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  449.  -  Epistle,  Apol.  Ki-/..  9. 

•■'  Middleton  to  Primrose,  3rd  February  1663  :  Wodtflni  MSS.  ;  Kirkton,  170  note. 

''  Ail.  Purl.  Scot.,  vii.  6g,  App.  95.  "  Memoirs,  135. 

"  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  152,  155.  "  Ibid. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    171 

dale  was  anxious  to  have  the  bloody  deed  accomplished.  Fourteen 
days'  grace  were  allowed.  On  the  22nd  July  he  was  brought  to  '  ane  Execution  of 
gallous  of  e.xtraordiner  heicht  ...  set  up  at  the  Mercat  Croce  of 
Edinburgh.'  On  the  scaffold  he  recovered  his  composure  and  read 
his  '  Last  Speech  and  Testimony,'  which  is  a  chaste  confession  of 
his  sins,  regret  for  compliance  with  Cromwell,  an  assertion  of  his 
innocence  of  the  death  of  Charles,  and  an  expression  of  his  dying 
regard  for  the  Royal  House  and  for  his  own  family.  He  publicly 
pleaded  the  merits  of  the  Redeemer,  and  while  crying  out  '  O  pray, 
pray,  praise,  praise! '  was  turned  over  by  the  executioner.  His  head 
was  fixed  beside  that  of  James  Guthrie,  and  remained  on  the  Nether- 
bow  for  years,  till  it  was  removed  at  the  instance  of  Sir  William 
Drummond  of  Cromlix,  his  son-in-law,  and  Dalyell's  lieutenant  at 
Rullion  Green.'  The  King  was  pleased  to  hear  the  news  of  Waris- 
ton's  death. ■^'  Lauderdale,  in  response  to  the  appeal  of  Archbishop 
Burnet,  wrote  apparently  in  Wariston's  favour,  but  at  the  same  time 
he  advised  his  under-secretary,  Moray,  to  be  shy  of  the  business  and 
leave  the  matter  alone.  The  heartless  creature  indicated  his  anxiety 
to  receive  his  Bible  in  Hebrew  without  points,  and  his  scent-bottles, 
rather  than  a  pardon  for  his  old  friend.' 

Thus  passed  from  the  very  spot  where  he  had  often  been  the  Characicr  of 
herald  of  constitutional  freedom  this  eminent  Scot,  who,  despite  the  ""*'""• 
defects  of  his  impetuous  nature  and  Border  blood,  was  one  of  the 
most  sincere  and  devout  upholders  of  the  Reformed  faith  in  its 
Covenanted  form.  A  pious  lawyer — a  rare  phenomenon  in  his  day — 
a  conscientious  politician — an  equally  rare  subject  (he  had  doubts 
about  complying  with  the  Sectaries),  and  a  pure-minded  man, 
Wariston  possessed  so  many  other  worldly  characteristics  that  his 
son-in-law,  Jerviswood,  best  described  him  as  'a  man  with  God.' 
On  the  way  to  his  own  execution,  Jerviswood  looked  over  to 
Wariston's   Close   and   exclaimed   to    Wariston's   daughter,    Helen : 

"  Nicoll,   394-6;   Naphtali,  209;   Omond,  Lord  Advocates,  i.    182-5:   Aldis.   List,   No. 
1774,  Last  Discourse  of  .  .  .    Warislcn;  Wodrow,  i.  355-62. 
'  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  153.  ^  Lbid. 


172  THE  COVENANTERS 

'  Many  a  sweet  day  and  night  with  God  had  your  now  glorified 
father  in  that  chamber.' 
James  Wood's  While  Wariston  was  lying  in  his  blood,  another  bright  luminary 
es  imony.  .^  ^j^^  Church,  James  Wood,  Professor  of  Divinity,  and  Principal  of 
the  Old  College  of  St.  Andrews,  was  summoned  to  the  Council  to  be 
taken  to  task  for  retaining  an  office  which  he  got  from  Cromwell. 
Wood  was  an  able  man,  a  staunch  Resolutioner,  a  negotiator  at 
Breda,  the  bosom  friend  and  promoter  of  Sharp.  Now  his  presence 
near  the  palace  of  the  Archbishop  was  offensive  ;  and  the  champion 
of  Nonconformity,  even  although  enfeebled  in  health,  had  to  be 
removed.  Not  content  with  this.  Sharp,  after  paying  a  visit  to  the 
sick  man,  promulgated  the  false  report  that  Wood  had  confessed  his 
defection,  and  intimated  his  willingness  to  live  and  die  under  the  new 
discipline.  This  slander  so  hurt  the  dying  Presbyter's  feelings  that 
he  subscribed,  before  credible  witnesses,  a  testimony  asserting  his 
'wonted  zeal  for  Presbyterial  government,'  and  'taking  God,  men, 
and  angels  to  be  witnesses,  that  I  would  count  it  my  glory  to  seal 
this  word  of  my  testimony  with  my  blood.'  He  died  on  15th  March 
Archbishop  1 664.'  Sharp  declared  this  document  to  be  a  testimony  fraudulently 
vindicUveness.  obtained  from  a  facile,  moribund  man,  and  caused  the  witnesses  to 
it,  and  other  recusant  visitors  of  Wood,  to  be  prosecuted  as  con- 
temptuous, peace-breaking  conventiclers.  The  Commission  took  up 
the  case  on  15th  April,  sent  William  Tullidaff,  minister  of  Wemyss, 
to  the  Tolbooth  for  being  a  witness,  ordered  the  deposition  or 
suspension  of  Wood's  visitors  for  conventicling  in  St.  Andrews,  and 
dispatched  the  seditious  declaration  to  the  hangman's  fires.  Another 
witness,  John  Carstairs,  Wood's  brother-in-law,  wrote  an  account  of 
the  incident  to  Chancellor  Glencairn,  narrating  the  circumstances  as 
above."  The  affair  afforded  the  Archbishop  a  lever  for  removing 
from  the  ministry  several  influential  opponents  of  his  policy.  The 
Archbishop  of  Glasgow  was  equally  assiduous  in  displacing  the 
recusants,  and  there  was  good  reason  for  the  lament  of  the  author  of 

'  Add.  MSS.  23251,  fol.  9  ;  Row,  B/air,  465-7  ;  Wodrow,  i.  391,  404-6. 
-  M'Crie,  VeiicA,  App.  491. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    173 

Naphtali,  that  the  shepherds  were  smitten  and  the  flocks  scattered, 
the  teachers  removed,  and  the  vineyard  and  sanctuary  laid  desolate, 
so  that  in  whole  provinces  no  preaching  was  heard,  and  the  Sabbath 
was  only  known  in  sorrowful  remembrance.'  Hitherto  the  retributive 
statutes  only  applied  to  ministers  ordained  since  1649:  that  too  was 
soon  remedied,  and  the  older  Covenanters  were  netted  as  well. 

Naturally  Lauderdale  was  anxious,  until  Parliament   passed  the  Lauderdale's 
'  Act  rescinding  the  Acts  of  September  9,  1662,  regarding  Trusts  and  duties.  ^ 
Billeting.'^     He  wrote  to  Moray:   'Nodogg  leads  so  buse  a  life.      I 
am  perfectly  dazed.'  ^     No  wonder!     He  had  to  carouse  with  Rothes, 
examine  Wariston,  inquire   into  Middleton's   peculation   of  ^30,000 
of  army  pay,  and  the  fraud  of  Middleton's  vicereine,  who  imagined 
that  the  furniture  in  Holyrood  was  her  own,  to  mention  the  penalties 
for  dissenters,  and  to  explain  the  pretence  of  associating  Papists  with 
these  unfortunates.     There  was  a  spice  of  blasphemy  in  his  thought 
when   he  wrote   to   the    King,    the  day  after  Saint   Billeting's    day, 
thus  :  '  By  yesterday's  Act  you  will  see  that  Billeting  is  dead,  buried, 
and  descended.'    Middleton,  branded  as  a  liar  and  peculator,  degraded  Fate  of 
from  position,  despised  by  the  nobility  as  an  upstart,  and  '  de-courted,' ' 
as    Nicoll    happily    phrased    the    dismissal,    was    relegated    to    the 
governorship  of  Tangier,  where   he  died  of  a   fall   when  drunk,  in 
1674.''     Lauderdale   had   triumphed.      Sharp's  day-dream   of  a  con- 
junction of  these  two  rivals  '  for  good  to  poor  Scotland  '  was  dissipated. 
Still,  in  Rothes — Silenus  enthroned  on  his  cask — this  '  Father  in  God  ' 
held  a  potentate  who  suited  his  purpose  as  well  as  Middleton. 

The  Government,  influenced  by  English  repressive  legislation,  on  'The  Bishops 
loth  July,  passed  an  'Act  against  separation  and  disobedience  to  '"^■"*'- 
ecclesiastical  authority.''  It  was  popularly  known  as  'The  Bishops' 
Drag-net.'  It  ordered  ministers  appointed  before  1649  to  obtain 
collation  before  20th  September ;  absentees  and  nonconformists  to 
be  suspended  and  deposed  for  persisting  in  disobedience  ;  the  Privy 
Council   to  remove  delinquents  and    punish  preachers  not  collated  ; 

'   Page  117. 

'  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  450,  471,  Act  30;  Mackenzie,  Memoirs,  u8,  etc. 

^  Laud.  Pnfi.,  i.  148-71.         ^  Liurnet,  Hist.,  i.  364  note.         ^  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  455,  A<-t  9. 


174 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Tiie  deniaml 
for  outward 
conformity. 


Proposed 
Synod. 


parishioners  to  attend  their  own  parish  churches — withdrawers 
('  whether  upon  account  of  Popery  or  other  disaffection  ')  being  Hable 
to  heavy  fines  as  seditious  persons ;  and,  worst  of  all,  enjoined  the 
ministers  to  admonish  delinquents,  and  send  the  names  of  the  with- 
drawers to  the  Privy  Council,  who  got  power  to  inflict  '  corporal 
punishment  as  they  shall  think  fit.'  These  facts  are  worthy  of 
attention  :  every  parish  had  a  Government  informer ;  the  Council 
could  punish  dissenters  as  they  pleased.  The  latter  fact  explains 
the  subsequent  procedure  of  the  truculent  Councillors.  The  Earl 
of  Kincardine  was  one  of  the  minority  who  recoiled  from  the  new 
inquisition,  which  was  an  imitation  of  the  cruel  policy  and  deeds 
approved  of  by  Primates  Whitgift  and  Bancroft  when  dealing  with 
Enoflish  dissenters.^ 

Lauderdale,  in  writing  to  Moray,  explained  the  meaning  of  this 
statute  thus  :  '  Penalties  [are]  calculated  for  our  western  dissenters 
(thogh  the  word  papist  be  put  in  of  course  to  beare  them  company), 
and  it  is  hoped  the  penalties  will  be  stronger  arguments  to  move 
them  to  outward  conformitie  than  any  divines  could  use.'  Charles, 
too,  was  pleased  with  the  Act,  caring  nothing  what  cloak  of  religion 
men  put  on,  so  long  as  they  were  orderly  citizens.  Parliament 
further  enacted  that  all  persons  holding  offices  of  trust  should  take 
the  Oath  of  Allegiance.'  A  Militia  Act  was  also  passed.'*  There- 
after, Lauderdale,  vowing  vengeance,  yielded  to  a  clamour  in  certain 
circles  for  a  National  Synod  as  a  panacea  for  the  country's  distemper, 
and  countenanced  the  Act  for  constituting  it.'  Never  was  a  more 
Erastian  Assembly  contemplated.  It  made  the  clergy  into  puppets 
manipulated  by  the  King,  or  his  kinglets.  The  hierarchy,  with  its 
long  tail  of  paid  functionaries — the  lay-elder  was  abolished — were 
to  convene  when  and  where  the  King  ordered  them  to  meet,  under 
the  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  in  presence  of  himself  or  deputy, 
to  discuss  subjects  prescribed  by  the  King,  and  to  frame  Acts  only 
obligatory  when  confirmed    by  the   King.      By  this   deft    touch   of 


'  Hallam,  Const.  Hist.,  \ 
'  fbid.,  42,  480. 


'99.  213,  394.  -  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  17,  463. 

*  Ibid.,  22,  465,  August  21  ;  Wodrow,  i.  353. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    175 

Lauderdale,  the  Church  was  converted  into  a  college  of  pious  scribes, 
and  the  Monarch  into  an  infallible  Pope.  To  complete  the  farce, 
the  Synod  never  met. 

In  December  1660,  Sharp  boasted  to  Drummond :  'I  have  done 
more  for  the  interest  of  Presbyterian  Government  in  Scotland  than 
any  minister  who  can  accuse  me.'  In  November  1663,  Sharp  adjured 
Lauderdale  :  '  Your  Lordship  can  never  doubt  but  that  my  service 
and  obsequiousness  to  his  Majesty  and  to  your  Lordship  will  draw 
in  a  line.'  *  Sharp  might  reconcile  these  statements  by  his  belief 
that  extinction  was  the  best  interest  of  the  Church  he  had  betrayed. 
It  was  not  inappropriate  that,  on  the  last  day  on  which  the  Estates 
met,  a  grant  of  the  precious  metals  in  the  Ochils  should  be  criven 
to  astute  Lauderdale,^  who  returned  to  London  satisfied  that  he  had 
restored  the  '  good  old  form  of  government ' — he  should  have  added 
'called  Despotism.' 

The  two  archbishops  were  advanced  to  the   Privy  Council,  and  '  twenty  Mile 
the  clerical  brains  were  at  work  that  day,  13th  August  1663,  when  the  Augus?i653. 
famous  'Twenty  Mile  Act'  was  passed,  'by  which  the  turbulent  and  dis- 
affected ministers'  got  other  twenty  days  wherein  to  conform,  or  remove 
with  their  whole  households  twenty  miles  from  their  churches,  six  miles 
outside  a  cathedral  city,  and  three  miles  outside  a  royal  burgh.' 

Under  this  Act  withdrawers  from  Synods  were  to  be  proceeded 
against.  The  bishops  were  busy  pressing  the  constant  moderators 
to  deal  with  their  refractory  brethren ;  and  the  Privy  Council  had 
plenty  to  do  giving  effect  to  their  latest  proclamation,  that  the 
religious  meetings  of  '  th&  outed  ministers '  were  seditious  convoca- 
tions."*  Repression  made  conventicling  more  popular ;  and  Prelacy 
grew  more  distasteful  to  crowds,  who  listened  to  many  vaorant 
Presbyterian  pastors  evicted  from  Ireland  at  the  Restoration.  Epis- 
copacy, not  having  been  legally  suppressed  there,  was  more  easily 
re-established    by    the    displacement   of    these    nonconformists,    who 

•  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  47,  89 ;  Laing  MSS.,  784.  2  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  524. 

^  Privy  Counc.  Rec. :  Twenty-eight  Councillors  present,  including  Rothes  :  Row,  B/air,  447 ; 
Aldis,  List,  1747. 

'  Proclaimed,  nth  August  ;  Aldis,  List,  1759. 


176 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Exactions  by 

Government 

officials. 


crossed  the  channel  into  Galloway.  The  Scots  Council  decreed 
that  these  'wasps  should  have  no  countenance,'  and,  if  found  with- 
out passports,  that  they  should  be  sent  to  prison.  Turner  and  the 
Guards  were  set  on  to  ferret  them  out.  The  churches  became 
emptier.     Discontent  was  on  the  increase. 

The  exactions  from  the  nine  hundred  persons  mentioned  in  the 
Act  of  Indemnity,  1662,  had  been  made  with  such  cruel  exorbitancy 
that  the  victims  were  beggared  and  their  best  instincts  violated. 
There  was  a  short  surcease  of  the  extortion.  Then  a  military  party 
arrived  in  a  district,  and  its  commander  demanded  not  only  the 
unpaid  fine,  but  three  shillings  a  day  for  every  trooper  to  be  quartered 
till  the  fine  was  paid.  There  was  no  remeid  of  law.  Seizure  of 
proods  was  authorised.'  There  could  be  no  error,  because  the  fine 
was  debitum  fundi,  whoever  the  occupier  might  be.  No  excuses 
were  valid.  None  were  too  poor  to  pay.  The  exactors  were  thus 
licensed  brigands,  who  beat,  tortured  and  imprisoned,  to  gain  their 
ends.  The  method  for  levying  the  sum  of  twenty  shillings  for  with- 
drawing from  public  worship  was  simple.  After  sermon  the  incumbent 
called  the  congregational  roll,  and,  marking  the  absentees,  .sent  their 
names  to  the  fining  officer.  He  rode  to  quarters  and  waited  for  the 
fine.  Or  the  troop  rode  up  to  church,  called  the  congregation  out, 
and  seizing  the  visitors  from  other  districts  fined  them,  stripped  them 
of  their  clothing,  or  detained  them  for  further  Heecing.  They  also 
drove  the  absentees  to  church,  abusing  the  invalids  on  the  march 
thither."  Insult  was  heaped  on  injury  when  the  maltreated  were 
coerced  into  signing  a  certificate,  '  that  thfe  Captain  had  used  them 
civilly  and  discreetly.'  Corruption  reigned  everywhere.  Moray  is 
explicit  on  this  point.  From  peer  to  pedee  there  was  a  vile  lust 
for  fines  and  loot,  as  will  be  proved.  On  the  day  Parliament  rose. 
Sharp  wrote  to  Sheldon  pleading  that  Dumfries,  who  stuck  to  the 
peculating  Middleton  to  the  last,  might  get  a  share  of  the  fines.^ 


'  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  203. 

'■^  Naphtali,  130-4,  App.,  287  ;  Kirkton,  200,  201  ;  Hind  Let  Loose,  184. 

^  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  20,  App.  i. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    177 

The  Advocate  Mackenzie's  excuse  for  the  enormities — that  no  just  People  goaded 
government  could  be  responsible  for  the  extravagances  of  the  soldiery  '°    ^^peration. 
— was  mere  trifling  with  the  subject.'     Guilty  and  innocent  alike  were 
goaded  to  desperation  when  the  slightest  show  of  disapproval  led  to 
sympathisers  being  registered  as  rebels.     Yet  despair  lasted  for  years 
before  defensive  arms  were  resorted  to  by  the  persecuted. 

Lieutenant  Rattray  and  the  foot  guards  in  Kirkcudbright  did  not  Disturbances 
quell  the  Gallovidians,  especially  those  of  Anwoth,  where  the  defiant '"  ^''"°^''='>'- 
spirit  of  Rutherford  still  lingered.  From  his  pulpit  John  Mein,  a 
true-blue  Covenanter,  had  been  ousted,  and  a  young  expectant, 
Alexander  Robertson,  son  of  the  minister  of  Urr,  in  September 
boldly  took  his  place,  in  spite  of  the  guards.  He  it  was  who  shortly 
afterwards  encouraged  the  Balmaclellan  rioters,  marched  with  them 
to  Dumfries  and  on  to  the  Pentlands,  for  which  he  ultimately  suffered.'- 
Sir  James  Turner  was  sent  by  the  Council  to  reinforce  Rattray  and  sir  James 
to  put  the  disturbance  down.^  In  Turner,  who,  as  a  soldier,  knew  jgiTjese 
Galloway  well,  the  Government  had  a  veteran  agent,  punctilious, 
remorseless,  thorough.  He  was  a  product  of  an  age  which  utilised 
men  who  emasculated  themselves  of  the  higher  virtues,  to  become 
butchers  of  each  other  under  a  semi-chivalrous  code  of  warfare,  for 
pay,  loot,  and  fame.^  Romance  was  bred  in  him  near  the  ruined 
castles  of  Borthwick  and  Dalkeith,  where  his  father,  a  parish  minister, 
read  books  and  made  poor  rhymes.^  By  graduating  at  Glasgow  in 
1 63 1,  Turner  redeemed  himself  from  the  illiterate  condition  which 
distinguished  the  other  '  Dugald  Dalgettys '  in  the  pay  of  the  Crown. 
In  the  evening  of  his  life  he  employed  his  pen  writing  Pallas  Arinata, 
and  other  productions  in  prose  and  verse.  Penniless,  he  sought 
advancement  in  Continental  wars,  and  became  a  typical  mercenary 
selling  his  sword  for  any  cause.  In  his  Memoirs  he  confessed  :  '  I 
had  swallowed  without  chewing  in  Germanie  a  very  dangerous 
maxime  which  militarie  men  then  too  much  followed,  which  was  that 

'   Vindication,  lo.  2  Wodrow,  ii.  21,  49,  50  ;  Just.  Rec,  i.  186. 

'  Turner,  Memoirs,  139  (Bann.  Club  ed.).       *  Cf.  Scott,  A  Legend  0/ Montrose,  chap.  ii. 
'  Professor  Lee  made  the  curious  mistake  of  describing  Turner  as  'an  Englishman': 
Lectures  on  the  History  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  ii.  331. 

VOL.   II.  Z 


178  THE  COVENANTERS 

so  we  serve  our  master  honestlie  it  is  no  matter  what  master  we 
serve.'  Loyal  to  this  immoral  maxim,  he  fought  for  foreigner, 
Covenanter,  Engager,  Montrose,  Solemn  Leaguers,  for  and  against 
the  King,  for  and  against  Presbytery  and  Prelacy.  The  King 
knighted  him  in  1662.  Mirabile  dichi,  he  never  bled,  save  when 
he  was  drunk — a  vulgar  sin  which  '  brought  me  many  inconveniences,' 
he  wrote/  It  only  needed  a  licence  to  convert  this  bibulous  brawler 
into  a  merciless  brigand  where  there  was  a  house  to  harry,  or  a  fatted 
calf  to  kill.  Yet  with  an  incredible  assurance,  in  an  essay  entitled 
'  A  Christian  under  the  Covenant,'  Mr.  Andrew  Lang  asserts  that 
Turner  was  '  infinitely  more  of  a  Christian  than  the  Saints  of  the 
Covenant.'^  He,  of  course,  in  his  special  pleading,  omits  the  fact 
that  the  Privy  Council  dismissed  Turner  upon  receipt  of  an  incrimi- 
nating report  on  his  cruelties.^  Moray  reported  similarly.  Defoe 
was  nearest  the  truth  when  he  asserted  :  '  It  is  impossible  to  give  the 
details  of  the  cruelties  and  inhuman  usage  the  poor  people  suffered 
from  this  butcher,  for  such  he  was  rather  than  a  soldier."  *  Turner, 
on  the  contrary,  asseverated  that  Rothes  and  Sharp  chid  him  for  his 
leniency.'' 
Changes  in  In  this  unhappy  period  the  hierarchy  suffered  several  changes  and 

1663.'^"^^"^'^'  losses.  Sydserf,  Bishop  of  Orkney,  died  on  29th  September,  'little 
more  than  a  year  afte«  his  translation,'  which  made  Burnet  cynically 
record  :  '  He  had  died  in  more  esteem  if  he  had  died  a  year  before  it.' " 
He  was  succeeded  by  Andrew  Honyman,  Archdeacon  of  St.  Andrews, 
once  a  zealot  for  Presbytery,  now  the  fidus  Achates  of  Sharp.  On 
2nd  November,  Fairfull,  Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  also  died  in  Edin- 
burgh, and  his  see  was  given  to  Alexander  Burnet  of  Aberdeen, 
who,  in  turn,  was  succeeded  by  Patrick  Scougal,  minister  at  Salton. 
The  ceremonials  of  consecration  and  of  installation  were  held  in  St. 
Andrews  on  iith  April  1664.' 

Again  the  Church  was  fully  equipped  with  diocesan  overseers. 

'  Memoirs,  43.  *  Blackwood's  Magazine,  clxxiv.,  41-3,  July  1903. 

^  Memoirs,  207,  209;  Privy  Counc.  Rec.  (20th  February  1668) — Decreia,  36  ;  Laud.  Pap., 
ii.  83,  100.  ^  Hist.,  208.  ^  Burnet,  i.  379. 

'  Hist.,  I.  237  ;  Nicoll,  400.  ''  Nicoll,  403,  408  ;  Row,  Blair,  467. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    179 

The  system  of  government  was  unique.  The  bishops  were  virtually  status  of  the 
officers  of  the  Crown  :  Kirk-Sessions,  authorised  by  the  bishop, 
might  meet :  the  Exercise  or  Presbytery  met  with  the  bishop  as 
moderator,  or  under  the  presidency  of  a  '  constant  moderator ' 
nominated  by  the  bishop  :  the  diocesan  Synod  met  and  was  presided 
over  by  the  bishop :  the  national  Synod  was  a  Parliamentary 
chimera  only. 

Sharp  was  miserable.  He  realised  that  the  country  was  not  at  sharp 
his  back.  His  early  friends  Houted  him  as  the  Judas  who  had 
betrayed  their  Church.  The  aristocracy  despised  him  as  an  upstart. 
The  masses  arrived  at  the  same  conclusion  as  James  Mitchell,  that  he 
was  the  instigator  of  the  national  woes.  Some  needy  hirelings  and 
unbending  Royalists  gave  him  countenance.  Sharp  even  confessed 
that  '  the  gangrene  of  separation  from  the  Church  '  was  spreading  and 
making  the  position  of  the  prelates  precarious.  This  idea  became 
fixed,  got  on  his  nerves,  so  that  he  began  insinuating  that  the  Privy 
Council  was  in  league  with  recusants  hatching  some  sinister  plot.  He 
entered  himself  heir  to  Laud's  fatal  policy  of  repression,  which  also 
recoiled  on  his  own  head  when  he  tried  the  dragooning  of  other  wills. 
At  this  juncture  the  King  was  willing  to  tolerate  dissent  for  sake  of 
shielding  Popery  ;  Lauderdale  was  indifferent  as  to  what  form  of  faith 
held  the  field ;  but  Sharp  felt  an  inward  call  to  display  a  superior 
wisdom  in  the  curative  results  of  his  policy.^  He  would  establish  the 
Court  of  High  Commission,  a  weapon  which  other  tyrants  had  found  Court  of  High 

1    r  t_  •  Commission, 

as  impotent  on  the  people  as  fatal  to  themselves  ;  and  for  this  purpose  ,664. 
he  betook  himself  to  London,  to  advance  his  cherished  policy,  and  to 
blame  Chancellor  Glencairn  and  others  for  their  pusillanimity.  His 
arrival  was  chronicled  at  home  by  the  receipt  of  recriminating  letters 
ordering  rigorous  treatment  of  the  disaffected.  The  Oath  of  Alle- 
giance was  the  touchstone.  Many  prominent  citizens — Dalrymple  of 
Stair,  Dundas  of  Arniston,  Mackenzie  of  Tarbet,  and  others — refused 
to  disclaim   the   old   Covenants.^     Others  gave    up  offices  of  trust. 

'  Mathieson,  Politics,  ii.  210 ;  Dodds,  125  ;  Wodrow,  i.  384  ;  Burnet,  i.  369  note. 
'  Wodrow,  i.  345,  395  ;  Row,  Blair,  469. 


i8o 


THE  covenantp:rs 


Sharp 
humbled. 


Sharp 
exalted. 


The  new 

Commission. 


Charles  was  gracious  to  Sharp,  who  had  an  inquisitional  ally  in  the 
Primate,  Sheldon.  Lauderdale,  Moray,  Argyll,  Tweeddale,  and 
Kincardine  favoured  conciliatory  measures,  but  Lauderdale  meantime 
acquiesced  in  Sharp's  demands,  '  persuaded  he  would  ruin  all  :  but, 
he  said,  he  was  resolved  to  give  him  line,  for  he  had  not  credit  enough 
to  stop  him.''  Lauderdale  had  for  a  second  time  to  humiliate  the 
treacherous  Sharp  and  bring  him  to  his  knees  in  tears  before  the 
King,  who  henceforth  was  to  recognise  his  servant  as  a  knave,  pol- 
troon, and  liar,  to  be  used  but  not  trusted. - 

Early  in  the  year  1664,  Sharp  returned  to  Edinburgh  carrying  a 
portfolio  full  of  warrants,  patents  of  bishoprics,  and  patronages.  He 
was  an  exalted  personage,  Primate  and  Metropolitan  of  all  Scotland, 
with  the  highest  precedence  in  the  land,  and  styled  '  His  Grace.' 
Douglas's  prophecy  had  complete  fulfilment :  '  Pick  a  bishop  to  the 
bones,  and  he  '11  soon  gather  flesh  and  blood  again.'" 

Sharp  produced  a  warrant,  dated  i6th  January  1664,  for  con- 
stituting a  '  Commission  for  executing  the  laws  in  Church  affairs,' 
which  was  another  name  for  a  Star  Chamber,  superseding  the  Privy 
Council.  It  was  nicknamed  The  Crail  Court.  The  tribunal  was  to 
last  till  November.  Its  members  were  specified — Sharp  (President), 
Chancellor,  Treasurer,  Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  Hamilton,  Montrose, 
Argyll,  Atholl,  Eglinton,  Linlithgow,  Hume,  Galloway,  Annandale, 
Tweeddale,  Leven,  Moray,  seven  bishops,  six  lords,  four  law-lords, 
four  gentlemen,  five  provosts  of  burghs,  the  Dean  of  Guild  of 
Edinburgh  for  the  provost,  and  Sir  James  Turner  ;  any  five,  including 
a  bishop,  to  be  a  quorum.''  Every  ecclesiastical  offence  was  to  come 
under  their  survey,  and  they  had  power  to  fine  or  imprison  at  will, 
and  to  have  their  orders  implicitly  executed  by  all  officers  of  the 
Crown,  without  requiring  indictments,  defences,  or  evidence  led. 
Their  net  had  the  smallest  mesh.  With  Sharp  at  the  head  and 
Turner  at  the  tail  of  this  '  illegal  monster,'  as  the  author  of  Naplitali 
designated  the  Commission,  the  country  was  in  peril  of  being  cruelly 


'  Burnet,  i.  370,  378. 
^  Row,  l>lai>;  462. 


■■'  Ibid..,  i.  360  ;  Scottish  lievieiv,  iv.  6,  14  ;  v.  76. 
^  Wodrow,  i.  384-6. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    i8i 

devoured.  It  was  no  wonder  that  ostracised  Brown  wrote  from  Barbarities  of 
Holland  those  telling  chapters  demonstrating  the  unlawfulness  oi  ^^^^ 
hearing  such  heralds  of  the  Gospel,  and  of  obeying  such  a  Commis- 
sion/ The  minutes  of  this  Court  have  not  yet  been  found.  The 
well-informed  contemporary  author  of  Naphtali  has  recorded  a  few- 
instances  of  the  barbarities  perpetrated,  '  whereof  there  is  no  corner  in 
the  whole  country,  nor  parish  almost  in  the  west,  which  cannot  give 
evidence.""     Ex  ungue  disce  leonem. 

The  case  of  Ancrum  was  a  typical  one  and  the  minister  affected  Jam"  Scoit 

,        .  .  J  of  Ancrum. 

was  likely  to  obtain  the  best  protection  of  the  authorities.  James 
Scott  was  presented,  at  the  end  of  1665,  to  the  pastorate  of  Living- 
stone— exiled  for  his  faith.  The  antecedents  of  the  unwelcome 
presentee,  who  got  no  call,  were  too  well  known.^  He  was  a 
Borderer,  a  graduate  of  Edinburgh,  a  former  Presbyter  of  Jedburgh, 
having  been  ordained  in  Kirktown,  forty-nine  years  before,  whence 
in  16 1 9  he  was  translated  to  quiet  Tongland  in  Galloway.  There  he 
contracted  unholy  habits.  He  became  a  boft  vivant.  He  kept  few 
of  the  laws.  He  left  his  pulpit  empty  for  weeks ;  he  helped  himself 
to  the  church  funds  ;  he  '  tabled  '  or  enjoyed  cards,  draughts,  dice  ;  he 
was  friendly  to  excommunicated  Papists  ;  he  declined  the  superior 
Church  courts ;  and  he  opposed  the  Covenant.  The  Assembly 
deposed  him  in  1639.  Across  the  Border  he  became  Episcopal 
minister  of  Ford  in  1660,  and  had  the  ban  of  excommunication 
removed  from  him  by  the  Bishop  of  Galloway  in  1664.  He  was  an 
object  of  special  solicitude  to  the  first  Restoration  Parliament,  which 
voted  him  a  grant  of  one  hundred  pounds,  increased  to  one  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds,  out  of  the  diocese  of  Glasgow,  or  Galloway,  because 
he  was  'an  extraordinary  sufferer  these  twenty-four  yeers  byegone.'^ 

This  was  also  a  case   for  a  conscientious  congregation.     Scott  The  rabbling 
arrived  in   Ancrum  to  preach  and  be  placed  :  his  hearers,  men  and 
women,  came  to  object — they  confessed  to  be  '  pressed  in  conscience 

'  Apol.  Narr.,  270,  316.  -  Page  130. 

■*  Scott,  Fasli,  ii.  484,  503,  723  ;   Peterkin,  Record's,  261. 

*  23rd  September  1663  :  Act.  Pari!  Scot.,  vii.  Sia,  484. 


i82  THE  COVENANTERS 

to  declare  to  him  their  dissatisfaction  with  his  entry.  The  women 
had  a  local  pattern  for  being  more  valiant,  in  their  own  '  maiden 
Lylliard,'  resting  close  by,  whose  epitaph  declares  : — 

'  Upon  the  English  louns  she  laid  mony  thumps. 
And,  when  her  legs  were  cutted  off,  she  fought  upon  her  stumps.' 

Banishment  of  A  young  married  woman,  Turnbull,  desirous  of  pressing  home  her 
rural  views,  seized  Scott,  the  presentee,  by  his  cloak.  The  ungallant 
Scott  drew  and  used  his  pastoral  staff.  There  were  the  usual  Border 
cries.  Her  two  brothers  joined  in  the  fray  and  took  revenge.  The 
local  bench  fined  and  imprisoned  the  rioters.  That  was  not  enough 
for  the  Council  or  the  Commission.  Four  culprits  were  brought 
before  the  Commission  to  be  sentenced  '  as  contemners  of  the 
Ordinances,  to  be  scourged  through  the  town,  stigmatised  with  the 
letter  T[raitor]  at  the  Cross  of  Edinburgh,  and  thereafter  imprisoned, 
and  with  the  first  ship  to  be  carried  to  the  Barbadoes  Islands.'  The 
Turnbull  brothers  of  Ashieburn,  married  men,  were  afterwards 
sentenced  to  banishment  in  Barbadoes,  and  their  sister  to  be  scourged 
through  the  town  of  Jedburgh.'  As  the  burghal  hangman  flogged 
the  well-padded  heroine,  who  was  led  through  the  streets  by  her 
brother,  he  turned  his  hateful  duty  into  a  popular,  laughable  panto- 
mime. Mr.  Grub,  when  animadverting  on  Wodrow  and  his  acceptors 
for  crediting  Kirkton's  version  of  what  Mr.  Grub  designated  a 
'probably  untrue  story,'  had  not  consulted  the  very  credible  con- 
temporary book,  Naphtali,  the  author  of  which  points  out,  as  if 
worthy  of  note,  that  the  Commission  had  acted  ultra  vires  in 
ordering  the  stigma  and  transportation." 
Cruelty  to  Another    case    which    created    a    stir    at    the   time    was    that    of 

Smith.  Alexander    Smith,    a   graduate    of   Edinburgh,   evicted    minister    of 

Colvend,  who,  after  residing  quietly  at  Leith,  was  charged  with  con- 
venticling.  At  his  examination  he  addressed  Sharp  as  '  Sir,'  instead  of 
'  Your  Grace.'  Rothes  demanded  if  Smith  knew  who  the  president 
was,  when  Smith  intrepidly  confessed  that  he  recognised  '  Mr.  James 

'  Naphtali,  128  ;  Kow,  Blair,  484  ;  Kirkton,  209  ;  Wodrow,  i.  393. 
'  Grub,  Hist.,  iii.  221  note  ;  Naphtali,  125. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN   183 

Sharp,  sometime  fellow-minister  with  himself.'  This  reply  was 
deemed  treasonable,  and  Rothes  ordered  the  hangman  to  put  the 
minister  in  irons  in  'The  Thieves'  Hole'— a  filthy  place— beside  a 
furious,  unfettered  maniac,  the  intention  being  obvious.  When  his 
judges  learned  that  the  prisoner  was  visited  and  sustained  by  charit- 
able friends  they  removed  him  into  the  Iron  House,  and  ultimately 
ostracised  him  to  Shetland.  He  was  brought  back  to  Edinburgh 
and  was  thereafter  sent  to  North  Ronaldshay,  whence  he  returned  to 
die  on  the  Castlehill  in  1673.  Kirkton  records:  'I  heard  him  say 
he  was  in  one  island  four  years,  where  he  had  neither  food  nor  fire  to 
keep  in  a  miserable  life,  his  food  being  only  barley,  his  feuel  sea- 
tangle.'^ 

For  somewhat  similar  offences  a  man  named  Black  was  scourged  Sufferings  of 
through  Edinburgh."  The  laird  of  Aikenhead,  near  Cathcart,  James  Hamilton. 
Hamilton,  and  his  tenantry,  became  embroiled  with  a  greedy  local 
curate,  who  sought  revenge  by  calling  in  the  bishop  as  referee.  The 
latter  employed  Sir  James  Turner.  When  the  Commission  heard 
Hamilton's  defences,  they  mulcted  him  in  a  quarter's  rent,  and  on 
his  refusal  to  promise  attendance  on  the  new  curate's  services,  they 
exacted  another  quarter,  and  handed  him  over  to  the  tender  mercies 
of  Archbishop  Burnet,  who  soon  had  him  back  before  the  Commis- 
sion. No  persuasion  would  induce  him  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance, 
unless  the  obnoxious  clause  regarding  the  supremacy  was  deleted. 
Rothes  said  he  deserved  hanging.  They  fined  him  ^300  and 
banished  him  to  Inverness.  His  estate  was  sequestrated  to  pay 
these  fines  ;  and  even  after  his  sentence  was  remitted,  he  was  again 
incarcerated  in  the  Tolbooth  of  Edinburgh,  where  he  lay  for  months 
until  another  fine  was  paid,  when  he  was  liberated.^ 

John  Porterfield,  laird  of  Duchall,   Kilmalcolm,  absented  himself  Sequestration 
fpom  the  services  of  his  calumniating  curate,  and  in  consequence  was  °^  ^°""'''''^" 
invited  by  the  Commission  to  take  the  oath,   which  in  its  amended 
form   he  was    willing  to  do,  had  that  been  admissible.     A   fine  of 

'  Nicoll,  441  ;  Scott,  Fasti,  ii.  577  ;  Kirkton,  209  ;  NaphtuU,  129. 

'  Naphtali,  129.  ^  Wodrow,  i.  391-2. 


i84  THE  COVENANTERS 

^500,  to  pay  which  the  estate  was  sequestrated,  and  an  injunction  to 
reside  in  Elgin,  were  the  beginning  of  a  lifetime  of  persecution  of 
this  staunch  non-juror.'     For  having  like   scruples   about  the  oath, 
Walter  Pringle  of  Greenknowes  was  fined  ^100  and  sent  to  Elgin. - 
William  The  Court   made  a  progress  to  the   west  to  investigate  similar 

FemWck"'^  cases,  and  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  Burnet  and  his  clergy.  Among 
1620-1665.  the  ministers  ordained  before  1649  was  William  Guthrie  in  Fenwick, 
proprietor  of  Pitforthie,  cousin  of  Guthrie  the  martyr,  and  a  favourite 
student  of  Rutherford.  An  unbending  Covenanter,  he  marched 
against  Montrose,  opposed  the  Engagement,  was  in  the  scuffle  at 
Mauchline  Moor,  joined  the  Protesters,  became  a  '  trier '  under 
Cromwell— in  a  word,  had  done  everything  to  make  himself  a  marked 
man.  He  had  found  time  to  write  a  small  book  entitled  The 
Christian  s  Great  Interest,  which  had  a  great  circulation  at  home 
and  abroad.  The  patronage  of  the  Earl  of  Eglinton,  and  his  son-in- 
law,  the  Chancellor,  Glencairn,  saved  him  from  the  ejection  which 
his  brother  John,  in  Tarbolton,  now  an  outlaw,  had  suffered.  Burnet 
insisted  on  displacing  Guthrie,  and  in  July  1664  sent  Forbes, 
incumbent  at  Cadder,  to  announce  his  suspension.  Notwithstanding, 
he  was  permitted  to  remain  in  Fenwick  till  October  1665,  when  he 
went  north  to  Brechin,  and  on  the  tenth  of  that  month  died  there,  at 
the  premature  age  of  forty-five.  Guthrie  was  one  of  the  best 
specimens  of  the  old  Scots  clergy,  gentle  of  birth,  scholarly,  genial 
and  witty,  intensely  evangelical,  and  yet  not  so  straitlaced  as  to 
despise  a  sportsman's  shot,  cast  of  a  fly,  or  an  end  at  curling. 
According  to  Dr.  John  Owen  he  was  '  one  of  the  greatest  divines 
that  ever  wrote.' ^ 

The  day  after  Guthrie's  demise  Burnet  had  the  satisfaction  of 
deposing  Robert  Maxwell,  minister  at  Monkton,  another  persistent 
absentee  from  his  Synod.^ 

In    1660  vengeance  had  overtaken  John   Spreul,   town-clerk  of 

'  Wodrow,  i.  392  ;  ii.  226  ;  iv.  137  ;  Naphtali,  123.  ^  Wodrow,  i.  394,  422. 

3  For  Guthrie's  Life,  cf.  Wodrow,  i.  406 ;  Row,  Blair,  318  note,  430  ;  Select  Biog.,  i.  335  ; 
ii.  33-8o  ;  Analecta,  \.  47,  169  ;  iii.  69  ;  Fasti,  iii.  168 ;  Carslaw,  Life,  1-118  ;  Aldis,  List,  1659. 
<  Wodrow,  i.  411. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    185 

Glasgow,  who,  after  a  term  in  the  Tolbooth  of  Edinburgh,  found  Spreui's  case, 
himself  not  able  to  break  the  Covenant,  and  exiled  himself  to  escape 
a  worse  doom.  He  returned  to  skulk  about  by  night.  He  was 
caught,  offered  the  oath,  which  he  refused,  and  was  ordered  out  of 
the  kingdom  on  pain  of  death.  This  sentence  was  remitted  seven 
years  later,  when,  as  a  frail  old  man,'  he  again  ventured  home  to  seek 
repose,  and  found  it  only  in  the  jail. 

The  laity  suffered  crudest  tribulation  after  the  royal  warrant  of 
17th  September  1664  was  issued,  calling  up  all  the  fines  payable  by 
the  eight  hundred  rebels  according  to  the  Act,  9th  September  1662, 
and  fixing  the  places  of  receipt.  Stringent  statutes  and  proclama- 
tions against  clerical  and  lay  conventiclers  were  repeated  ad  nauseam, 
so  that  an  honest  man  dare  hardly  sneeze  in  public. 

Meantime,    on    ^oth    May    1664,    Chancellor    Glencairn    died    of  Death  of 

'  ^  '  ^  _  Chancellor 

fever.  The  story  ran  that  he  was  distressed  over  the  persecutions  ciencairn, 
which  he  had  encouraged,  lamented  that  he  had  raised  a  devil  (Sharp)  '^^4. 
he  could  not  lay  again,  and  cried,  when  it  was  too  late,  for  Douglas 
and  other  Presbyterian  clergy  to  give  him  a  soul-comforting  viaticum.^ 
Two  months  later  the  King  gave  his  loyal  servant  a  state  funeral  in 
St.  Giles,  and  left  his  family  to  defray  the  charges.^  In  vain  Sharp 
angled  for  the  vacant  Chancellorship,  which,  after  a  vacancy  of  three 
years,  was  given  to  Rothes. 

Foreign  politics  as  well  as  domestic  troubles  caused  uneasiness  Foreign 
and  anxiety  in  the  King  and  his  advisers.  By  the  English  Uni- 
formity Act  the  nonconformist  clergy  had  been  ejected  from  their 
pulpits  without  being  forbidden  to  hold  conventicles.  In  May  1664, 
a  strict  Conventicle  Act  discharged  private  religious  conventions. 
Discontent  grew  and  became  dangerous.  Malcontents  sought  safety 
over  the  seas,  keeping  in  touch  with  their  friends  by  correspondence, 
or  by  secret  agents,  who  flitted  about  fomenting  discord.  For  daring 
to  write  wifely  letters  to  her  husband,  Mrs.  Robert  Trail  was  put 
in   prison.^     Before  hostilities  broke  out  between  England   and  the 

■  Wodrow,  i.  75,  413  ;  ii.  ig6.  '  Row,  Blair,  469  ;  NicoU,  428. 

'  Wodrow,  i.  417  note.  *  Ibid.,  423. 

VOL.   II.  2  A 


i86  THE  COVENANTERS 

Troubles  with   Dutch    Republic    in    1664,    some    exiled   incendiaries   promoted    an 

Fiance.  insurrectiott  in   Britain,  in  which  they  expected  subsidy  and  aid  from 

Holland  and  France.  It  came  to  nought.  Colonel  Gibby  Ker,  who 
escaped  seizure  as  an  accomplice  of  Colonel  Blood,  gave  the  States 
glowing  accounts  of  what  the  westland  Whigs  would  do.  Anticipat- 
ing the  peril,  the  Scots  Estates,  presided  over  by  Sharp,  voted  the 
King  a  handsome  subsidy,  although  the  country  was  confessedly 
bankrupt.'  The  combination  of  Holland  and  France  emboldened 
the  Scots  malcontents  still  more,  till  the  English  fleet  crippled  the 
Dutch.  The  States-General  passed  a  secret  resolution  to  assist  the 
Scots  with  arms  and  money  as  soon  as  the  '  friends  of  religion ' 
possessed  themselves  of  suitable  towns  and  forts."  Spies  had  wormed 
out  these  designs,  and  the  terrified  Council  kept  alert.  Sharp 
advocated  the  mobilisation  of  military,  ostensibly  to  meet  the  Dutch, 
but  in  reality  to  quell   the   Covenanters.      Directed  by  Lauderdale, 

Chancellor  Rothes,  fortified  by  many  new  commissions,  the  choicest  of  which  was 
Chief  Collector  of  the  Fines,  managed  Scotland.  He  was  too  much 
a  man  of  the  world  to  be  an  implacable  persecutor,  and  tradition 
asserted  that  when  his  conventicling  wife  invited  some  rebel  ministers 
to  Leslie  House,  where  the  Chancellor  saw  them,  he  said,  '  My 
Lady,  I  would  advise  you  to  keep  your  chickens  in  about,  else  I  may 
pick  up  some  of  them.'^  He  was  a  drag  on  the  truculent  bishops. 
When  muddled,  he  had  visions  of  the  invading  '  Butterboxes  ' ;  when 
sober,  he  declared,  '  The  ffayns  [fines]  torments  me.'  ■* 

Alarm  of  Privy  In  their  alarm  the  Scots  Privy  Council  dispatched  Archbishop 
Burnet  (who,  in  writing  to  Arlington,  mentioned  the  assembling  of 
armed  fanatics,  and  recommended  the  employment  of  the  fines  in 
moulding  a  militia)  to  London  to  expose  the  danger,  and  obtain  a 
warrant  for  apprehending  some  westland  gentlemen  most  likely  to 
lead  the  Whigs  if  occasion  served.^  Orders  came  for  the  incarcera- 
tion  of  these  influential   suspects   in   the   very  fortresses  which  the 

'  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  530  ;  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  202,  206,  220. 

2  Dodds,  Fifty  Years,  132-7  ;  M'Crie,  Vei/c/i,  378. 

3  M'Crie,  Veitch,  295.  ■•  LaiuL  Pap.,  i.  206-20. 
'  loth  February  1666  :  Rec.  Off.  Slate  Papers,  c.xxxvii.  239. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    1S7 

insurgents  hoped  to  seize.  Among  their  number  were  Major- 
General  Robert  Montgomery,  brother  of  the  Earl  of  Eglinton, 
Cunningham  of  Cunninghamhead,  Maxwell  of  Nether  Pollok,  Camp- 
bell of  Cessnock,  Mure  of  Rowallan,  Stewart  of  Coltness,  Holborn 
of  Menstrie,  Sir  George  Munro,  Colonel  Robert  Halket,  Chiesley  of 
Kerswell,  Dunlop  of  that  Ilk,  and  others.^  Sir  Patrick  Hume  and 
other  gentlemen  were  also   imprisoned  at  this  time.     The  activity  Measures  for 

11  1 J  •  suppressing 

and  brutality  with  which  the  ofhcers  of  the  law  and  the  soldiery  the  whigs. 
executed  the  proclamation  of  3rd  October,  exacting  the  fines 
of  the  non-jurors,  made  the  law-abiding  peasants  sullen,  their 
bolder  brethren  roused  and  revolutionary.  Itinerant  hosts  of  armed 
worshippers  now  assembled  wherever  John  Osburn,  preacher  in 
Keir — '  the  Mountain  Beadle ' — convened  the  faithful  to  hear,  or 
partake  of  the  ordinances  dispensed  by,  Welsh,  Semple,  Blackadder, 
Arnot,  Douglas,  Peden,  Reid,  Wilkie,  and  Crookshanks.  These 
fleet-footed  heralds,  following  Peden's  example,  rode  about  in  hodden- 
grey  clothes,  armed,  and  sometimes  in  masks.  Rothes  informed 
Lauderdale  of  their  gatherings  for  worship  and  sacraments  in  the 
wilds,  and  that  he  had  sent  troops  to  'have  a  hit  at  them.' ^  That 
hard  hitter  was  Sir  James  Turner,  who,  with  one  hundred  and  forty  Tumei  em- 
horse  and  foot  guards,  was  let  loose  in  the  south-west  for  two  months  „est. 
in  the  autumn  of  1665.'  Turks  never  behaved  worse.  He  in  vain 
locked  Osburn  in  the  Thieves'  Hole  in  Dumfries,  without  food, 
'  keeping  the  key  the  space  of  three  days  himself,'  in  order  to  force 
him  to  confess  the  hiding-place  of  Welsh  and  Semple.^ 

'  A  gentleman  in  Galloway  '  gave  the  authors  of  Naphtali  '  Some 
Instances  of  the  Sufferings  of  Galloway  and  Nithsdale,'  which  for 
barbarity  have  few  parallels  in  our  annals.  The  soldiers  exceeded 
the  fines  scheduled,  took  quarters  where  they  pleased,  rioted  on  the 
best,  travelled  with  hounds  and  took  the  nearest  sheep,  and  some- 
times threw  the  children's  broth  for  dog's-meat,  raided  cattle,  ejected 

'  Wodrow,  i.  425  ;  Dodds,  139  ;  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  206  ;  ii.  App.  A.  xxxi.  ;  Burnet,  i.  377. 
-  Reply  to  Lauderdale,  24th  November  1665  :  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  233.  ■"  Memoirs,  140. 

*   Wodrow  MSS.,  xl.,  T.  54  ;  M'Crie,  VeiMi,  51  note. 


r88 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Turner's 
device. 


Unrest  in  the 
Westlands. 


widows,  beat  complainers,  violated  women,  mocked  and  cursed 
during  family  worship,  and  desolated  many  a  happy  home.'  To  add 
insult  to  injury,  the  oppressed  were  compelled  to  subscribe  a 
certificate  '  that  Sir  James  had  used  them  civilly  and  discreetly,' 
which  excluded  them  from  all  hope  of  redress.^  When  these  and 
worse  offences  were  afterwards  charged  against  Turner  and  Ballan- 
tine  by  the  Crown,  Turner  pleaded  that  he  never  exceeded  his 
orders,  and  had  actually  shown  leniency.^  This  infamous  business 
of  fining  was  a  diabolical  method  of  enriching  the  beggared  Royalist 
gentry  at  the  expense  of  the  thrifty  middle  classes,  as  is  proved  by 
the  correspondence  of  Rothes.  The  mustering  of  forces  to  oppose 
the  Dutch,  in  reality  a  cunning  suggestion  of  Sharp  for  procuring 
available  exterminators  of  the  Whigs,  so  alarmed  Rothes,  that  he 
informed  Lauderdale  that  the  embodiment  of  the  militia  would  ruin 
Annandale,  Atholl,  and  Airlie,  who  were  dependent  on  the  fines  to 
save  their  fortunes — the  creditors  of  Annandale  having  staved  off  his 
bankruptcy  to  allow  him  time  to  scoop  in  fines,  else  he  '  will  im- 
mediately perish  in  his  ffortune  yeay  at  this  verie  next  tearme."*  In 
these  circumstances  is  it  to  be  marvelled  at  that  a  vulgar  curate  in 
Galloway  vowed  in  his  pulpit :  '  God  nor  I  be  hanged  over  this 
pulpit,  but  I  shall  gar  [force]  you  all  come  in  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest.'  ' 

Sharp  reported  that  the  Scots  in  1665  were  'aloft  and  discom- 
posed,' unwilling  to  comply  with  the  Government  measures,  deluded, 
turbulent,  and  'gadding  after  those  who  are  disorderly.'*  His 
coadjutor,  Burnet,  feared  a  conspiracy  between  the  Ulster  Presby- 
terians and  the  westland  Whigs,  a  year  before  Rothes  complained 
of  their  actual  co-operation  in  Dumfries  in  March  1666.^  The  7th 
December  1665  was  a  fateful  day  in  the  Privy  Council.     An  Act  of 


'  Nnp/ilali,  136,  287  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  9  note  ;  cf.  Darmagechan's  suflfeiings,  Wodrow,  iv. 
334-6. 

-  Reg.  of  Synod  of  Galloway,  52-3.  '  Memoirs,  192. 

*  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  237-8  :  Charles  gave  Atholl  a  precept  of  ^6000  on  the  fines  ;  Chron.  of 
Atholl,  155  :  Countess  of  .Atholl  to  Countess  of  Lauderdale,  20th  February  1666. 

»  Wodrow,  ii.  9  note.  ^  Laing  MSS.,  784.  '  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  235  ;  ii.  xviii. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    189 

Eviction  was  then  passed,  by  which  the  last  of  the  ministerial  recusants 
and  their  households  were  forced  to  leave  the  manses  for  homes 
in  other  parishes  to  save  themselves  from  jail,  while  another  Act 
declared  all  conventicles  to  be  '  seminaries  of  separation  and  rebellion,' 
and  frequenters  of  them  to  be  traitors  to  be  apprehended  by  '  all  our 
public  ministers.''  Another  proclamation  demanded  the  compearance 
of  the  eleven  leading  field-preachers  :  Welsh  of  Irongray,  Semple 
(Kirkpatrick-Durham),  Blackadder  (Troqueer),  Archibald  (Dunscore), 
Arnot  (Tongland),  John  Douglas  (Crailing?),  Peden  (Glenluce), 
William  Reid  (Rattray),  Wilkie  (Twynholm),  John  Crookshanks, 
(Rogerton),  and  John  Osburn  (Keir).'"  In  April  1666  the  Synod 
of  Galloway  drew  Sir  James  Turner's  attention  to  some  of  these 
preachers.^     The  order  was  ignored. 

Early  in  the  year  1666  the  Council  was  staggered  by  the'AnApoio- 
dissemination  of  a  little  epoch-making  book  entitled  'An  Apologeti-\^J^J ^f,^^ 
call  Relation  of  the  particular  sufferings  of  the  faithfull  ministers  and 
professours  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  since  1660,  etc.  etc..  By  a  well- 
wisher  to  the  good  old  cause.'  It  was  printed  abroad  in  1665  (i2mo, 
424  pp.).  Its  author,  John  Brown  of  Wamphray,  had  timeou.sly 
returned  a  Roland  for  an  Oliver  out  of  his  place  of  exile.  This 
treatise  in  twenty-three  sections  deals  trenchantly  with  every  aspect 
of  the  dispute,  and  powerfully  maintains  the  righteousness  of  the 
principles  and  actions  of  the  Covenanters,  even  to  justifying  their 
resistance  to  their  unconstitutional  governors.  Acknowledging  its 
dangerous  import  the  Council  at  once  proclaimed  it  seditious,  ordered 
the  hangman  to  burn  it  at  the  Cross,  and  attached  a  fine  of  ^2000 
Scots  to  any  possessor  of  it.  When  Sharp  forwarded  it  to 
Lauderdale  he  unclerically  styled  it  'a  damned  book,'  which  had 
fired  the  west  and  had  turned  the  country's  quarrel  into  a  defiance 
of  the  Crown. ^  Mrs.  James  Guthrie  and  Sophia,  the  widow  and 
daughter  of  the  martyr,  had  a  copy — probably  a  present  from  the 
author,  who  vindicates  the  martyr  in    it.     Because  they  refused   to 

'  Wodrow,  i.  428,  430  note.  -  Proclaimed  25th  January  i666  :  ibid.,  ii.  4. 

^  Register,  48.  *  Laiiig  MSS.,  784,  9th  February  1666. 


I90 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Proclamation 
of  repressive 
measures. 


Cause  of  the 
rising  in  the 
Glenkens, 
1666. 


State  what  they  knew  about  the  work  they  were  banished  to  a  close 
prison  in  Zetland.' 

In  March  Turner  was  again  sent  south  with  one  hundred  and 
twenty  foot-guards.'  From  his  headquarters  in  Dumfries  he  gladly 
sent  out  his  booted  apostles  to  begin  business  'at  the  old  rate,' as 
Burnet  grimly  recorded  the  fact.  Irritation  succeeded  irritation. 
The  '  Commission  for  Discipline,'  passed  on  7th  December,  was  now 
operating,  so  that  influential  persons  who  refused  to  help  the  curates 
in  their  so-called  discipline  and  informing  were  liable  to  be  fined  and 
outlawed.  Still  worse,  a  '  Proclamation  for  procuring  obedience  to 
ecclesiastical  authority,  October  11,  1666,'  made  proprietors  liable 
for  the  orderliness  of  all  residents  on  their  lands,  with  power  to 
evict  the  nonconformists,  also  magistrates  liable  for  citizens  in  burghs, 
and  heads  of  houses  for  their  servants — the  escheits  as  a  reward  falling 
to  the  proprietors,  whom  failing,  to  the  informers.'  Repressive 
measures,  conceived  by  Sharp,  Burnet,  and  the  Privy  Council,  and 
now  so  specialised  that  there  was  no  hole  for  a  church  mouse  to 
escape  by,  made  the  stalwart  men  of  the  Glenkens  ripe  for  a  rising 
had  they  dared,  being  aware  that  two  veterans,  Dalyell  and  Drum- 
mond,  with  terrible  reputations  from  Russian  wars,  now  commanded 
the  army.  In  October  1666  the  Bishop  and  Synod  of  Galloway 
remonstrated  with  Turner  for  his  illegalities  in  Kelton  and  Girthon 
of  which  the  heritors  complained.'^ 

The  atrocities  of  Turner's  ruffians  were  more  than  Gallovidian 
blood  could  longer  stand.  It  was  reported  that  the  leaders  of  the 
insurgents  incited  them  by  stating  that  Dalyell  was  coming  to  hang 
every  man  at  his  own  door  and  that  one  hundred  had  been  hanged 
in  Glasgow.*     They  rose  in  arms.^     It  fell  out  thus  :  John  Maclellan, 


'  Wodrow,  ii.  7  ;  Reg.  Sec.  Cone.,  8th  February  1666.  -  Memoirs,  142. 

'  Wodrow,  ii.  15  note  ;  cf.  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  455,  456  ;  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  Ixxiv. 

*  Register  0/ Synod,  68.  ''  State  Papers  (Charles  11.),  76,  1 10. 

"  I  have  compiled  this  account  of  the  rising  from  the  following  works:  Naphtali,  137; 
Turner,  Memoirs,  146;  Nicoll,  451;  Kirkton,  229;  Burnet,  i.  418;  Blackadder,  Memoirs, 
121  ;  Ljiud.  Pap.,  i.  245,  248,  251  ;  M'Crie,  Wallaces  Narrative,  355  ;  ibid,  Sempil  MS.,  380  ; 
Hind  Let  Loose,  108  ;  Row,  Blair,  501  ;  Life  of  A.  Reid,  17  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  17  ;  Wodroiu  MSS., 
Declaration  of  Whigs,  xxxii.,  59  ;  ibid..  True  Relation  of  the  Sufferings  in  Nithsdale   and 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    191 

laird  of  Barscob/  in  Balmaclellan  parish,  with  three  other  fugitives 
for  conscience'  sake,  forsook  their  hiding  in  the  rainy  hills  to  seek 
food  in  the  quaint  clachan  of  St.  John's,  Dairy,  on  Tuesday  morning, 
13th  November  1666.  On  their  way  they  met  some  peasants,  driven 
by  Corporal  George  Deanes  and  three  soldiers  of  Sir  Alexander 
Thomson's  company  of  the  guards — the  fine-raising  garrison  of  Dairy 
— proceeding  to  thresh  the  corn  of  a  poor  old  farmer  named  Grier,  in 
order  to  obtain  the  fine  for  absence  from  church,  which  Grier  had 
not  paid  before  fleeing  from  his  home.  The  wanderers  were  angry,  but 
passed  by,  meantime  saying  nothing.  They  had  reached  the  clachan 
alehouse  and  sat  down  to  breakfast  when  the  village  resounded  with 
the  cry  that  Grier  had  been  seized,  bound  '  hand  and  foot  like  a  beast, 
ready  to  be  carried  along,'  and  that  his  captors  '  were  threatening  to 
strip  him  naked  and  set  him  on  a  hot  gridiron  because  he  could  not 
pay.'     Barscob's  party  ran  and  caught  the  fiends  red-handed. - 

'Why  do  you  use  the  honest  man  so?'  cried  Barscob.  'How  Rescue  by 
dare  you  bind  the  old  man.-"  asked  others.  '  How  dare  you  challenge?'  ""^°  ' 
replied  the  King's  men.  Swords  were  drawn.  Barscob,  for  lack  of 
ball,  rammed  his  tobacco  pipe  into  his  pistol,  fired,  and  grounded 
Deanes  beside  his  victim.  The  comrades  of  Deanes,  after  a  spirited 
defence,  surrendered.  The  news  soon  reached  Balmaclellan,  where  a 
conventicle,  probably  conducted  by  Alexander  Robertson,  was  in 
progress."  At  this  very  time  the  evicted  minister,  Thomas  Verner, 
Robertson,  and  other  preachers  were  engaging  the  attention  of 
Turner,    by    request    of    the     Synod.*      The    conventiclers,    fearing 

Galloway,  60,  61,  62;  Mein's  Letters,  Record  Office  (Charles  11.),  76,  no;  102,  268;  156 
275;  106,  107,  295;  Dodds,  Fifty  Years,  144;  A'arr.  of  Battle  (1856);  Law,  16;  Chon. 
of  Frasers,  463;  Fleming,  Six  Saints,  var.  loc.  ;  Scots  Wort/iies,  art.  M'Kail,  Paton, 
etc.  ;  fust.  Rec,  i.  159-86  (Scot.  Hist.  See);  Ayrshire  Ballads— 'The  Battle,'  etc.— 40  ; 
OmonA,  Lord  Advocates,  i.  189;  J.  K.  Hewison  {Scotsman,  14th  September  1901), 'Fresh 
Light  on  Rullion  Green';  Terry,  The  Pentland  Rising;  (igo^);  The  Register  of  the  Synod, 
(Kirkcudbright,  1856);  Stark,  Bool:  of  Xiripatrici--Durha/n,  7S  ;  Thomson,  Martyr  Graves, 
1-18;  R.  L.  Stevenson,  The  Pentland  Rising:  a  Page  of  History.  1666;  Reg.  Sec.  Cone. 

'  Barscob  House  still  stands.  On  the  door  lintel  are  the  initials  and  arms  of  William 
Maclellan  and  M.  Gordon,  his  wife  ;  on  a  window  the  date  1648. 

■■=  M'Crie,  Sempil  MS.,  Notices  of  Wallace  in  Veitch,  382. 

"-  ftnt.  Rec,  I.  186.  *  Vernor  or  Warner,  April  1666  :  Register,  48. 


192 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Muster  of 
conventiclers. 


Capture  of 
Turner  in 
Dumfries. 


punishment  for  implication  in  the  affair  at  Dairy,  boldly  captured  the 
local  garrison  of  sixteen  men,  killing  one  in  the  ruffle,  on  Wednesday. 
Thus  one  rash  emergent  led  to  another.  These  united  parties, 
forecasting  trouble,  concluded  that  their  only  safety  lay  in  now 
capturing  Turner  himself,  and  holding  him  as  hostage  till  their 
grievances  were  redressed.^  With  Turner  in  custody  they  could 
approach  the  King  and  Council  with  a  chance  of  being  listened  to. 
To  march  to  the  Capital  and  in  person  present  their  petition  was  an 
after-resolve.  Turner's  '  inconveniences '  made  it  possible.  Fleet 
feet  ran  through  friendliest  of  parishes,  and  a  muster  of  well-wishers 
was  summoned  to  the  historic  church  of  Irongray,  four  miles  west 
of  Dumfries,  before  sundown."  That  night  dauntless  Deanes  rode 
in  to  Turner  and,  showing  his  wounds,  swore  he  had  been  shot  for 
refusing  to  subscribe  the  Covenant.^  The  jovial  colonel  sent  for 
his  men  and  retired  to  bed  indisposed.  The  increasing  band  of 
insurgents,  fifty-four  riders  in  cloaks  on  Galloway  nags  led  by 
Barscob,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  pedestrians  led  by  John  Neilson 
of  Corsock  and  probationer  Robertson,  were  impeded  by  torrential 
rain  and  the  fallen  night,  and  did  not  reach  the  rendezvous  till  after 
break  of  day  on  Thursday.  Here  a  mysterious  person  called  '  Mr.' 
or  '  Captain '  Andrew  Gray,  whose  antecedents  remained  a  puzzle  to 
Turner,  appeared  and,  producing  a  commission,  installed  himself  as 
commander.  He  rode  on  'a  little  beast'  at  the  head  of  Barscob's 
troop  over  Devorgilla's  Bridge  into  Dumfries,  where  a  small  party 
beset  Bailie  Finnie's  house  and  called  on  Turner  to  surrender.  No 
warrior  bold  replied.  At  the  window  appeared  a  vision  of  '  night 
cap,  night  gown,  drawers,  and  socks,'  and  a  voice  was  heard  crying 
for  quarter.  Neilson,  who  was  '  a  meek  and  generous  gentleman,' 
promised  it,  and  the  fierce  dragoon  descended  between  two  rows  of 

*  Brit.  Mus.,  Add.  MSS.,  23245,  fol.  6,  Declaration  of  Peniland Rebels  ;  ibid.,  fol.  7,  Council 
to  Charles  II.  Turner  was  appointed  Lieutenant-Colonel  on  28tli  July  1666:  Reg.  Sec. 
Cone,  Acta,  52. 

-  The  local  landlords  were  interrelated  by  blood  and  marriage.  In  the  Glenkens  the 
strong  clan  of  the  Gordons,  one  of  whom  married  Barscob,  were  supporters  of  the  Covenant. 
Neilson  of  Corsock  married  Mary  Maclellan.  Corsock  is  in  Kirkpatrick-Durham  parish, 
Kirkcudbrightshire.  ^  Turner,  Metnoirs,  148. 


Barscob  Huusi-,   HahnaclL-llan 


hunsrav  LIiuilIi 


The  Clachan  Alehouse,   Dahy 


K"'"-* 


LJuiuU  II. :j 


Sir  James  Turner 


1  lie  H.iulelielil  :\i  Rullion  Green 


Si.    Hiiile's  Church.    l;uui;l.i^ 

THE    PKNTLAND    RISING— FROM    D.ALRY   TO    RULI.ION    GREKN 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    193 

drawn  blades  and  primed  pistols — a  ludicrous  picture  of  peace.  Gray 
was  about  to  shoot  him  there,  when  Neilson,  interposing,  gallantly 
said  :  '  You  shall  as  soon  kill  me,  for  I  have  given  him  quarters.' 
It  was  about  nine  o'clock.  Gray  ransacked  Turner's  chest  and 
secured  his  papers  and  over  six  thousand  merks.  He  mounted  the 
colonel's  charger,  and  had  Sir  James  in  his  flannels  placed  on  the 
little,  discarded,  barebacked  Galloway,  which  was  led  by  a  halter  to 
the  Cross,  where  the  Covenanters,  as  was  their  wont,  pledged  a 
health  to  the  King,  swore  allegiance  to  the  Covenant,  and  reviled  the 
bishops.  Then  they  marched  to  Nith  Sands,  opposite  the  green 
slope  where  Blackadder's  church  stood,  in  order  to  hold  a  council  of 
war.  Meantime  arms  were  searched  for,  and  in  a  scuffle  another 
soldier  was  killed.  They  permitted  Turner  to  dress  before  taking 
him  with  them.  The  cavalcade,  now  better  armed,  resumed  its  fateful 
march  up  Cluden  and  Cairn  to  Glencairn  Kirk,  where  a  halt  was 
made.  All  night  they  marched  over  the  moorland  to  Dairy,  some 
thirty-two  miles  in  all,  that  day  (i6th).  On  an  alarm  they  marched 
through  part  of  the  next  night  to  the  safer  wilds  of  Carsphairn.  They 
had  no  plans  and  no  leader,  for  Gray  mysteriously  disappeared  at 
this  place.  They  used  Turner  well.  Robertson  and  other  messengers 
were  dispatched  to  Ayrshire  and  Edinburgh  to  solicit  succour  and 
encouragement  from  sympathisers. 

Meantime  Stephen  Irvine,  a  Dumfries  bailie,  rode  to  the  Capital  Irvine  rides 
with  the  news."  Rothes  was  on  his  way  to  London.  Sharp,  as  l,°,h1!ei."'^^ 
interim  president  of  the  Council,  had  the  acceptable  opportunity  to 
gratify  his  vindictive  spirit,  which  is  manifested  in  the  communication 
from  the  Council  to  Rothes  recommending,  as  a  first  precaution,  the 
apprehension  of  all  landlords  still  refusing  to  disown  the  Covenant. 
The  new  commander-in-chief,  Lieutenant-General  Dalyell,  was 
ordered  to  march  to  the  west,  with  the  regulars  and  probably  some 
Midlothian  Fencibles,  in  all  two  thousand  five  hundred  foot  and 
six  troops  of  horse.^  A  proclamation  on  the  21st  declared  the 
rising  to  be  rebellion,  and  all  who  refused  to  lay  down  arms  '  incor- 

'  Reg.  Sec.  Cone,  Ac/a,  602.  -  .S/a/e  Papers  (Charles  11.),  1 16,  248. 

VOL.  II.  2  B 


194 


THE  COVENANTERS 


March  of  the 
regulars  and 
insurgents  in 
November 
1666. 


rigible  and  desperate  traitors  incapable  of  mercy  and  pardon.' '     The 
Fencibles  were  mustering  in  selected  counties. 

The  regulars  under  Dalyell  and  Drummond  began  their  march 
from  all  quarters  on  Sabbath,  iSth  November,  and  reached  Glasgow 
on  the  20th,  Kilmarnock  22nd,  Mauchline  24th,  Strathaven  25th, 
Lanark,  afternoon  of  26th,  Calder  27th,  Currie  and  Rullion  Green 
28th.-  The  insurgents  were  moving  advisedly  through  districts  well 
known  to  be  hallowed  by  memories  of  struggles  for  faith  and  freedom, 
bivouacking  in  the  parish  churches  by  night,  and  inviting  recruits 
by  day,  as  they  passed  through  Dalmellington  (18),  Tarbolton  (19), 
Ayr  (20),  Coylton  (21),  Ochiltree  {22),  Cumnock  (23),  Muirkirk  and 
Douglas  (24),  Lesmahagow  and  Lanark  (Sunday,  25),  Bathgate  and 
Newbridge  (26-27),  Colinton  (27-28),  Rullion  Green  (Wednesday,  28). 
The  march  of  the  Covenanters  was  not  without  curious  episodes. 
The  host  was  a  moving  conventicle  sounding  with  prayer  and  sermon. 
At  Dalmellington,  Welsh  of  Irongray  came  into  camp,  and  social 
Turner,  anxious  to  hear  this  famous  divine's  inordinate  grace,  pledged 
a  tankard  of  ale  to  the  field-preacher,  to  enjoy  whose  intemperate 
eloquence  many  flocked  in.  Welsh  went  home  to  beat  up  recruits. 
John  Ross,  a  Mauchline  man,  and  John  Shields,  Mearns,  were  sent 
to  scout,  and  being  captured  near  Kilmarnock,  were  afterwards  tried 
and  hanged.^  At  the  Bridge  of  Doon,  James  Wallace,  proprietor  of 
James  Wallace.  Auchaus — of  the  stout  stock  that  gave  Scotland  its  greatest  hero,  an 
old  campaigner  in  the  Civil  Wars,  who  had  fought  for  Crown  and 
Covenant,  and  been  taken  at  Kilsyth  and  Dunbar,  a  former  lieutenant- 
colonel  of  the  foot-guards — joined  the  expedition  and  was  appointed 
commander.  This  Christian  soldier,  like  Havelock  of  our  day,  was  a 
man  of  piety  and  purity,  whose  patriotism  and  love  of  justice  impelled 
him  to  the  side  of  the  persecuted,  so  that  he  formed  a  striking  con- 
trast to  the  mercenary  swashbucklers  he  opposed.  To  the  admiration 
of  Turner,  he  drilled  his  seven  hundred  men  splendidly. 

'  Wodrow,  ii.  20  ;  Reg.  Sec.  Cone,  Acta,  628. 

=  Drummond  to  Rothes,  29th  November  1666  :  Scot.  Hist.  Rev.,  ill.  12,  451  ;  iv.  13,  114. 
^  Their  heads  are  buried  in  the  Laigh  Churchyard,  Kilmarnock  ;  cf.  Thomson,  Martyr 
Graves,  287-9. 


Commander 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    195 

Fearing  an  attack  from  Dalyell,  the  Covenanters  turned  into  the 
wild  country  round  Cumnock,  and  in  a  tempest  of  rain  plunged  over 
disastrous  Ayrsmoss  on  to  the  Moor  Kirk  of  Kyle,  wherein  they  lay 
all  night  drenched,  and  without  food  or  fire.  No  wonder  Turner 
recorded  :  '  I  never  sawe  lustier  fellows  then  these  foote  were,  or  Turners 
better  marchers.''  Daunted  and  dashed,  some  more  craven,  coun- °^'"J^°"  °  "^ 
selled  by  the  Irish  preacher  Andrew  M'Cormick  and  the  probationer 
Robertson,  wished  to  give  up  the  enterprise.  Even  sapient,  pro- 
phetic Peden  disappeared  through  the  mist.  Intrepid  Wallace  defied 
the  storm,  pushed  into  Douglasdale,  and  gave  his  men  shelter  in 
St.  Bride's  among  the  tombs  of  the  warrior  Douglases.  A  council 
of  war  was  held,  with  the  usual  religious  exercises.  Their  resolve  to 
proceed  was  fixed.  Their  aim  was  defence  of  the  Faith.  They  had 
the  honour  and  chivalry  to  reject  a  motion  that  Turner  now  should 
be  pistolled.  When  the  force  arrived  in  Lanark  they  were  a  thousand 
strong,  one-half  being  mounted,  with  four  or  five  experienced  officers 
only  to  lead  them. 

When  daylight  broke  on  Monday  the  26th,  they  assembled  to  Covenant 
renew  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant.  John  Guthrie,  evicted  Lanark.  ^ 
minister  of  Tarbolton,  standing  on  the  stairs  of  Lanark  Tolbooth, 
preached  to  the  infantry;  at  the  Townhead,  Gabriel  Semple  addressed 
the  horsemen.  The  Covenant  was  recited  and  all  joyfully  swore  it 
with  uplifted  hands.  At  this  time  a  preliminary  manifesto,  explain- 
ing the  origin  and  aim  of  the  insurrection,  was  framed,  to  the  effect 
that  they  were  assembled  to  maintain  a  bond  of  self-defence,  to 
uphold  the  trust  in  the  Covenant,  to  protest  against  the  apostasy  of 
the  times,  and  to  resist  cruel  usage." 

At  Lanark  a  suspected  intriguer,  William  Lawrie  of  Blackwood, 
factor  to  the  Earl  of  Douglas,  came  to  express  the  desire  of  the  Duke 
of  Hamilton  for  a  peaceable  settlement ;  and  again  at  Newbridge  he 
arrived  on  his  fruidess  errand.  To  Colinton  he  brought  a  proposal 
from  Dalyell  that  the  rebels  should  accept  the  terms  of  the  Govern- 

'  Metnoirs,  164. 

'•^   Wodrow  MSS.,  xxxii.    59  ;  Hist.,  ii.   25  ;  Declaraiioti  of  Ike  Western  Party  why  they 
Lifted  Arms  ;  Add.  MSS.,  Ifrit.  Mus.,  23245,  fol.  6, 


196  THE  COVENANTERS 

ment,  to  which  they  replied  that  they  were  simply  going  to  the 
Council  to  petition  for  redress.  Dalyell  honourably  sent  this  com- 
munication to  the  Council,  who  being  dissatisfied,  responded  that  all 
the  Government  could  accede  to  was  their  submission,  with  the 
liberty  to  petition  for  mercy.  The  persecuted  knew  exactly  what 
this  meant  to  'Sharp  of  that  Ilk,'  but  it  seems  certain  that  the  terms 
of  this  reply  never  reached  the  petitioners,  who  considered  that  there 
was  a  '  cessation  '  sinfully  broken  by  the  commencement  of  hostilities.' 

March  lo  Dalyell  entered  Lanark  the  day  Wallace  left  it.     Wallace's  route 

'"  ""^^  ■  was  north  to  Bathgate,  '  through  pitiful  broken  moores,'  so  closely 
pressed  by  Drummond's  horse  that  he  was  forced  to  march  on  through 
a  sleet  storm  in  the  darkest  of  nights  (26th-27th),  rather  than  halt  and 
be  chilled  to  death  in  the  shelterless  waste.  When  they  arrived  at 
Newbridge  they  were  a  bewildered,  wretched  rabble — still  uncon- 
querable. Rather  than  fall  out  of  the  ranks  they  tied  themselves 
together,  and  but  few  deserted.  At  length  the  frowning  citadel  of 
Edinburgh  came  in  view,  and  the  sheltering  church  of  Colinton,  four 
miles  from  the  Capital.  They  had  been  advised  to  expect  allies  in 
Midlothian  who  never  showed  face.  The  miserable  bivouack  in 
Colinton  Churchyard,  newly  mantled  with  frosted  snow,  was  disturbed 
early  in  the  morning  of  the  28th  by  sounds  of  musketry.  It  was  an 
affair  of  outposts,  and  the  Edinburgh  Fencibles  drew  the  first 
Covenanting  blood.  Wallace  lifted  his  eyes  to  the  hills  for  aid  and 
safety.  The  Pentlands  looked  pure  and  glorious :  they  proved  cold, 
pitiless,  cruel.  Up  and  away  trudging  to  their  doom,  the  insurgents, 
still  encouraged  by  thirty-two  ministers,  followed  Wallace  over  ground 
where  formerly  Cromwell  and  Le.slie  manoeuvred,  swinging  round  the 
hillfoots  by  way  of  Dreghorn  Castle,  Fulford  (Woodhouselee),  and 
Flotterstonc  (Ingliston)  Bridge  to  Rullion  Green — an  ancient  mart." 

The  last  sianii  RulHon  Green  was  well   known  to  southern  herds  and  drovers. 

Green.  Nevcr  had   'such  beasts' — that   is  the   bitter  taunt  of  Maitland  of 

Hatton,    one   of   their   slayers — entered    that    tryst — soon    to    be    a 

'  Naphtali,  140. 

■'  '  House  of  ^t^lir'  market  is  mentioned  in  Act.  Purl.  Scot.  (1581),  iii.  238. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    197 

shambles.  They  looked  like  hunted  sheep  that  had  escaped  the 
shearing,  ragged  in  pelt  and  dirty  in  cloot — veritable  'rullions,'  as 
Ayrshire  folk  style  unkempt  characters  to  this  day.  As  fast  as  foot 
could  carry  him,  Dalyell  was  on  the  way  from  Currie,  down  the  old 
drove  road  between  Capelaw  and  Bellshill,  past  Kirktown  and  St. 
Catherine's  Chapel — now  submerged  in  the  Compensation  Pond. 

Wallace's  trained  eye  chose  the  last  stand  on  the  south-east  base 
of  Turnhouse  Hill,  on  a  slope  called  Rullion  Green,  Rullim  Green, 
Yorling's  Green,  Gallowhill.  A  broad,  verdant  glacis  stretches  up  to 
a  small  plateau,  carpeted  with  wire  grass  and  bilberry  bushes.  It  lies 
to  the  south-west  of  the  monument  to  his  fallen  comrades.*  A  deep 
natural  ditch  bounds  the  slope  on  the  north-west,  intersecting  the  old 
drove  road.  Overhead  was  Turnhouse  Hill,  1500  feet  high.  To  the 
south  rose  Lawhead,  a  lovely  green  boss  in  summer.  To  the  west  and 
south  the  ground  stretches  in  solid  waves,  as  if  frozen  in  their  rolling, 
to  the  base  of  Carnethy  Hill.  Between  Lawhead  and  Turnhouse  the 
Covenanters  stood.  The  trysting-place  had  on  the  north  a  declivity  of 
three  hundred  feet  in  half  a  mile  till  it  reached  the  red-breasted  braes 
of  the  Castlelaw  Hill,  beneath  which  the  Glencorse  Burn  'drums 
and  pours  in  cunning  wimples  in  that  glen.'^ 

Wallace  made  three  dispositions.  Barscob  and  his  Galloway  ni^position  of 
troop  he  stationed  on  his  right,  near  Lawhead.  Major  Joseph  fj^.^^  '^ 
Learmont,  laird  of  Newholm,  was  in  command  of  the  horse  on  the 
left  wing.  Wallace  directed  the  foot  in  the  centre.  A  pioneer  party 
of  Drummond's  cavalry,  under  Ogilvy,  made  a  gallant  onset  upon 
Learmont,  only  emptying  a  few  saddles  before  retreating.  The  armed 
pastors  joined  in  the  fray,  and  two  of  them,  Crookshanks  and 
M'Cormick,  bit  the  dust.  Drummond,  perceiving  that  he  could  not 
dislodge  Wallace  without  infantry  reinforcements,  drew  off  his  cavalry 
and  waited  on  Castlelaw  Hill  till  the  tardy  Dalyell  appeared.  It  was 
near  sunset  before  Dalyell  had  his  army  marshalled  in  regulation 
order — himself,  Atholl,  and  Airlie  at  the  head  of  a  body  of  cavalry  on 

'  This  stone  was  formerly  placed  more  to  the  north-east,  and  was  lifted  to  this  position 
by  a  late  proprietor.  2  r   |    Stevenson  to  Crockett. 


198 


THE  COVENANTERS 


General 

Dalyell's 

position. 


Condition  of 
the  insurgents. 


the  left  wing,  Drummond  with  the  Life  Guards,  Commissioner's  troop, 
and  other  horse  on  the  right  wing,  and  the  infantry  under  Linlitligow 
in  the  centre,  and  kept  as  the  reserve.  The  Covenanters  watched 
Dalyell  coolly  riding  about  examining  their  position — a  figure  too 
'  kenspeckle  '  to  be  mistaken  or  forgotten,  grim  and  grizzly  of  aspect, 
with  his  long  beard  unshorn  since  the  fall  of  Charles's  head,  the  very 
'  Muscovite  Beast '  of  their  imagination.  The  Royalists,  on  the  other 
hand,  saw  against  the  dusky  sky-line  the  figures  of  ecstatic  preachers 
— Welsh  and  Semple  throwing  their  arms  into  the  air  like  the  seers 
of  old,  and  heard  them  crying  '  The  Great  God  of  Jacob,'  '  The  Great 
God  of  Jacob,'  'See  the  Lord  of  Hosts  fighting  for  us!'  and  other 
Judaic  slogans  meant  to  fan  the  courage  of  their  doomed  brethren.' 
The  hillsides  re-echoed  the  melodies  of  the  71st  and  78th  Psalms. 
It  was  not  till  after  an  exercise  of  prayer  and  praise  that  the 
Covenanters  resolved  to  fight  should  they  be  attacked  ;  still  they 
expected  some  peaceful  answer  from  the  Council,  and  they  disclaimed 
all  desire  to  shed  blood.  For  them  it  was  an  unequal  fight.  They 
had  only  sixty  muskets,  forty  pair  of  pistols,  and  twenty  pounds  of 
loose  powder."  It  must  have  been  with  great  contempt  that  Dalyell, 
supported  by  three  thousand  well-armed  and  disciplined  troops,  saw 
the  nine  hundred  irregulars,  under  Wallace  and  Learmont,  stand  before 
him.  Their  sorry  condition  is  best  described  in  a  contemporary 
manuscript : — 


■  It  was  a  Januar  or  December, 
Or  else  the  end  of  cauld  November, 
When  I  did  see  the  outlaw  Whigs 
Lye  scattered  up  and  down  the  rigs. 
Some  had  hoggers,*  some  straw  boots ; 
Some  uncovered  legs  and  coots  ; 
Some  had  halbards;  some  iiad  durks; 
Some  had  crooked  swords  like  Turks ; 
Some  had  slings,  and  some  had  flails 
Knit  with  eel  and  oxen  tails ; 
Some  had  spears  and  some  had  pikes ; 
Some  had  spades  which  delvyl  dykes ; 


'   Rothes  to  Lauderdale  :  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  267. 


Ibid.,  ii.  63. 


-  Knitted  leggings. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    199 

Some  had  guns  with  rusty  ratches ; 
Some  had  firey  peats  for  matches  ; 
Some  had  bows  but  wanted  arrows ; 
Some  had  pistols  without  marrows  ; 
Some  the  coulter  of  a  plough  ; 
Some  had  syths  men  and  horse  to  hough  ; 
And  some  with  a  Lochaber  axe 
Resolved  to  give  Dalyell  his  paiks.' 

Turner,  who  was  still  under  guard  near  the  Lawhill,  made  a  compact  The  fiyht  on 

,  .      ...  ii-i  r     ^       Rullion  Green 

With  the  guardsmen  to  save  his  lite,  and  that  in  the  event  01  the 
Covenanters  losing  the  day  he  would  give  them  quarter  and  plead  for 
their  release.  When  victory  crowned  the  royal  arms,  Turner  marched 
down  with  the  guard  to  his  comrades.  But  the  Privy  Council  ignored 
his  promise  of  quarter.  On  the  rally  of  the  trumpets  and  the  roll  of 
the  drums  a  squadron  of  cavalry  from  Drummond's  extreme  right 
advanced  uphill  and  poured  a  volley  into  Learmont's  men.  The  fire 
was  returned  with  spirit.  A  sword-fight  ensued  in  which  Captain 
John  Paton  of  Meadowhead  and  Captain  Arnot  showed  prowess, 
turning  the  enemy  '  after  they  stuck  in  each  other's  birse  for  ane 
quarter  of  ane  hour.'  '  They  mixed  like  chessmen  in  a  bag,'  was 
Drummond's  graphic  description  of  the  struggle.'  Wallace's  pike- 
and  scythe-men  rushed  down  the  steep  and  drove  first  the  foot  and 
then  the  dragoons  into  flight.  Drummond  shot  out  his  Commis- 
sioner's troop  to  rally  the  fugitives,  but  the  headlong  assault  of  the 
ugly  scythes  tied  to  long  poles  repelled  these  supports.  In  this  melee 
the  Duke  of  Hamilton  just  escaped  death  or  capture  by  the  timely 
interference  of  his  neighbour,  Dean,  afterwards  Bishop,  Ramsay ; 
while  Learmont,  in  the  opposite  interest,  escaped  death  just  by  the 
skin  of  his  teeth.  The  Covenanters  pursued  too  far.  With  the 
King's  guard  Drummond  caught  the  struggling  mass  on  the  flank  and 
hurled  them  into  confusion.  Wallace  opposed  this  movement  by 
sending  supports  which  weakened  his  right  command.  That  was 
Dalyell's  opportunity.     His  centre  and  left  were   unimpaired.      He 

'  Drummond  to  Rothes,  '  Pentland,  November  1666.'  This  graphic  letter  from  the 
battlefield,  preserved  in  the  Car/e  MSS.,  LX.xu.  g  iii.,  is  printed  in  the  Sco/.  Hisl.  Rev., 
iii.  No.  12,  451. 


200 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Dalyell's 
victorious 
charge. 


Captain 
Paton's 
heroism. 


rode  his  three  regiments  of  horse  right  among  the  half-armed  mob  of 
pedestrians  forming  Wallace's  main  battle.  Barscob,  with  his  eighty 
little  gallant  Galloways,  might  vainly  try  to  break  such  a  shock  before 
it  reached  the  swaying  mass;  nor  was  Paton's  notched  blade  of  any 
avail.  Fierce  Dalyell  and  his  fresh  irresistible  horse  swept  through 
the  crowd  as  over  a  field  of  grass,  and  the  white  snow  was  reddened 
with  blood.  Till  this  charge  Linlithgow's  infantry  were  looking  on 
and  blowing  their  matches,  affording  light  for  Turner  and  stragglers 
to  return.  They  followed  Dalyell  and  consummated  his  victory. 
The  blaring  trumpets,  rolling  drums,  and  blazing  firearms  created  an 
irretrievable  stampede. 

Little  knots  of  men  fought  it  out.  Among  the  last  to  leave  was 
Paton — altogether,  in  the  language  of  that  day,  'a  pretty  man,'  burly, 
keen-eyed,  hero-like,  a  veteran  of  the  German  wars,  a  campaigner  at 
Kilsyth,  Philiphaugh,  and  Worcester.  Dalyell,  his  old  comrade,  would 
fain  have  captured  him.  Pistols  they  emptied  on  each  other.  As  the 
story  still  is  told  at  westland  firesides — when  the  smoke  cleared,  bold 
Paton  saw  his  'pistol  ball  to  hop  down  upon  Dalyell's  boots,'  and 
smelled  the  devil.  He  carried  the  antidote  in  his  pocket.  Super- 
stitiously  believing  his  antagonist  to  be  lead-proof,  he  charged  his 
second  pistol  with  silver  and  presented  it.  But  the  necromantic 
Dalyell  wilily  stepped  aside  and  let  his  servant  get  the  fatal  bullet. 
Troopers  were  urged  to  seize  Paton.  As  one  trooper  fell  at  his  feet 
with  a  cloven  skull,  Paton  cried  to  his  baffled  pursuers,  '  Take  my 
compliments  to  your  master,  and  tell  him  I  cannot  come  to  sup  to- 
night.' Many  others,  light  of  foot,  escaped  down  the  gullies  and  over 
the  hills,  but  others,  discovered  by  the  rising  moon,  fell  to  the  relent- 
less blades  that  followed  them  for  miles.     A  miserable  ballad  has  it 

thus : — 

'  The  cleverest  men  stood  in  the  van. 
The  Whigs  they  took  their  heels  and  ran  ; 
But  such  a  raking  ne'er  was  seen 
As  the  raking  o'  the  Rullion  Green.' 

The  fighting  horsemen  had  a  better  fate  meantime,  for  we  may  infer 
from  the  lists  of  country  gentlemen  penalised  for  their  participation  in 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN   201 

the  fight  that  the  better  mounted  and  unwounded  men  escaped  in  the 
darkness. 

The  moon  gave  the  soldiers  light  while  they  stripped  the  bodies  of  Losses  by  the 
the  slain.'  Victors  and  vanquished  lay  on  the  field  all  night.  Mein,  ^ 
in  his  account  of  the  fight,  declares  :  '  The  army  say  they  never 
saw  men  fight  more  gallantly  than  the  rebels  nor  endure  more  ;  the 
general  was  forced  to  use  stratagem  to  defeat  them.'^  What  is  not 
credible— he  boasts  :  '  Not  one  of  the  King's  men  was  killed  and  only 
a  few  wounded.' '  Charles  Maitland  of  Hatton,  who  fought  with 
Dalyell,  mentions  that  one  hundred  Covenanters  fell  on  the  field,  and 
three  hundred  in  flight.*  Both  averments  are  open  to  question,  even 
although  the  Council  had  the  Justices  forewarned  to  intercept  all 
fugitives.  Rothes  acknowledged  the  capture  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  prisoners.  The  peasantry  of  the  Lothians  were  blamed  for 
murdering  some  of  the  fugitives.^  The  Royalist  gentry  made  diligent 
search  for  insurgents.  Annandale  and  Drumlanrig,  who  were  des- 
perate for  fines,  forfeitures,  and  remunerative  military  employment, 
brought  in  the  most  prisoners.** 

Sharp  was  delighted  with  the  victory  of  Dalyell,  and  wrote  at  sharp's  delight 
once  to  the  King  assuring  him  that  only  nightfall  prevented  the  ,,j(,,orj, 
extermination  of  his  enemies,  and  to  Lauderdale,  praying :  '  God 
make  us  thankful  and  give  us  hearts  to  improve  this  so  seasonable 
a  mercy  for  the  furtherance  of  his  Majesty's  service  in  the  Kingdom.' 
Shortly  afterwards  he  resigned  a  grant  of  Inchaffray  Abbey  in  favour 
of  the  hero  of  the  hour.^  The  victory  was  celebrated  by  the  firing 
of  the  guns  of  the  Castle.  While  the  half-naked  prisoners  filed  into 
Haddock's  Hole  and  other  prisons — eighty  wounded  were  confined 
in  Heriot's  Wark — the  Council  sat  down  to  frame  a  letter  craving 
the  King's  authority  to  proclaim  their  policy  of  extirpation.'*     Some 

'  Next  day  the  godly  women  of  Edinburgh  went  out  and  buried  them  in  shrouds. 
Wallace,  Narrative,  in  M'Crie,  Veitch,  428. 

'^  iMein  to  Williamson,  30th  November  :  State  /'(z/^;-j- (Charles  11.),  106,  301.       ^  Ibid.,  295. 

^  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  251.  Naphtali,  144,  gives  forty  westland  men  slain  and  '130  and 
upward  '  captured  ;  four  or  five  soldiers  slain.  ^  Wallace,  Narrative,  425. 

"  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  257.  ^  Ibid.,  259.  *  Wodrow,  ii.  35,  36  ;  Passages 

in  the  Lives  of  Helen  Alexander,  etc.,  4  :  AV^"-.  Sec.  Cone,  Acta,  628. 

\0L.   II.  2  C 


202 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Dalyell 
clamours 
for  the 

extermination 
of  the  Whigs. 


fugitives  fled  to  Kintyre,  which  Rothes  described  as  a  '  nest  of 
Cneaffs ' — worthless  persons.  Argyll  now  had  no  doubt  as  to  what 
course  to  follow.  He  wrote  to  Lauderdale  :  '  The  outed  ministers 
that  medled  in  the  late  rebellion  I  think  deserve  torture,'  while  those 
who  refused  submission  '  should  be  put  wher  ther  needs  no  troops 
to  suppress  them.'  Truly  times  had  changed  quickly,  when  the  heir 
of  the  proto-martyr  should  be  among  the  first  advocates  of  racks, 
boots,  halters,  and  hangmen's  knives  for  Covenanters,  whom  he 
styled  'fighting  phanaticks.'  He  vowed  that  if  they  abused  his 
tenderness,  'they  shall  need  no  other  to  cute  their  throats.''  After 
this,  is  it  surprising  that  'The  Muscovite  Beast'  and  other  mer- 
cenaries, with  a  like  keen  scent  for  blood  and  loot,  should  plead 
the  gospel  of  extermination,  praying  as  Dalyell  did  to  Lauderdale, 
'heist  us  moir  armes  and  bandeliers,'  since  there  was  no  other  remedy 
'  vithout  the  inhabetens  be  remouet  or  destroiet '  ?  '^  Such  sons  of 
the  saints  and  martyrs  goaded  on  the  persecutors,  while  the  very 
prelates  sharpened  the  swords  of  these  e.xecutioners  of  the  faithful 
and  law-abiding  adherents  of  a  Covenant  which  the  bishops  and 
many  clergy  subscribed — and  broke. 

Rothes  rushed  down  from  London  angry  at  his  removal  from 
its  scenes  of  pleasure.  The  Council,  concluding  that  the  rising  was 
preconcerted,  probably  by  Loudoun  and  other  suspects,  resolved  to 
discover  its  origin  by  torture.  The  day  after  the  battle  they  asked 
sanction  for  Sharp's  policy  of  extirpation,  and  issued  a  proclamation 
making  it  treason  to  harbour  fifty-seven  leaders  of  the  insurgents, 
including  Colonel  Wallace,  Captain  Maxwell,  younger  of  Monreith, 
Maclellan  of  Barscob,  Welsh  of  Scar,  Welsh  of  Cornley,  Kirko  of 
Sundaywell,  Mure  of  Caldwell,^  Ker  of  Kersland,  many  clergy,  and 
others  who  were  not  concerned  in  the  affair.  Rothes  made  a  progress 
to  pacify  '  those  parts  where  the  frenzy  first  took  its  rise.'     The  King 


'  Argyll  to  Lauderdale,  2Sth  January  1667  :  Letters,  41,  47,  56. 

-  Dalyell  to  Lauderdale,  6th  December  1666:  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  255. 

'  Dalyell  got  his  estate,  nth  July  1670,  for  his  'great  losses  .  .  .  much  hardship  and 
sutferings  by  long  imprisonment,  banishment,  and  otherwise  for  his  constant  loyalty  to 
his  Majesty ' :  Wodrow,  ii.  75  note  ;  Reg.  Sec.  Cone.,  Acta,  628. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    203 

appointed  a  Justiciary  Commission,  composed  of  nobles,  barons,  and 
officers — Hamilton,  Montrose,  Argyll,  Dalyell,  etc. — to  itinerate  and 
try  rebels.' 

The  Council  thought  they  had  secured  two  prisoners,  M'Kail  and  Hugh  M'Kaii's 
Neilson  of  Corsock,  who  could  divulge  everything.  M'Kail  had  been 
leading  a  fugitive  life  since  he  fled  after  preaching  the  too  true 
sermon,  in  which  he  said  'that  the  Church  and  People  of  God  had 
been  persecuted  both  by  a  Pharaoh  upon  the  Throne,  a  Haman  in 
the  State,  and  a  Judas  in  the  Church.'  This  bonny  lad  of  twenty- 
five  years — 

'  For  he  had  beauty  which  might  well  endear. 
No  blemish  in  his  body  did  appear' — 

was  now  a  fainting  consumptive  unable  to  keep  step  with  the 
Galloway  herds,  whom  he  left  at  Cramond.  He  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  scouts  of  Dalyell  on  the  Braids.  M'Kail  would  tell  nothing. 
They  showed  him  the  suggestive  boots,  and  asked  him  to  ponder 
them,   and  to   becoriie   ingenuous  to    prevent  their  use.      Meantime  To'ture  of 

1  -NT     •!  1  •      •  11  •    1  1  Neilson  and 

they  experimented  on  Neilson,  whose  excruciating  yells  might  'havewKaii. 
moved  a  heart  of  stone.' ^  M'Kaii's  simple  story  was  that  Turner 
caused  the  rising.  Into  the  marrow-squirting  boots  his  limbs  must 
go ;  and  strike  never  so  lightly  as  Dunmore,  the  bribable  hangman, 
might,  his  eleven  blows  on  the  emaciated  spindle-shank  afforded 
the  devil's  own  entertainment  to  the  patrons  of  bishops.  Inflamma- 
tory fever  held  the  victim  in  his  dungeon  on  his  trial  day.  All 
Rothes  could  report  was,  that  the  precipitancy  of  the  insurgents 
had  spoiled  the  designs  of  others,  who  '  were  not  to  have  sturd  yet 
for  several  months.'^ 

Lest  the  wounded  mig^ht  die,  batches  of  them  were  brought  to  Trial  of  ihe 
trial  in   the    Justiciary   Court    in    Edinburgh — the    first    on    the    5th 
December — Nisbet^  being  prosecutor,  and  Lockhart  and  Mackenzie 

'  Wodrow,  i.  51  note.  ^  Kirkton,  252  ;  Naphtali,  163,  268  ;  A  True  Relation,  etc. 

'  Rothes  to  Lauderdale,  20th  December  1666  :  Laud.  Pap.,  \.  265. 

■*  It  was  to  Lord  Advocate  Nisbet  that  Sir  Archibald  Primrose  said:  'Tliou  old  rotten 
devill,  what  art  thou  doing?  thou  wilt  never  rest  till  thou  turn  the  fury  of  this  people  from 
the  bishop  upon  thy  self  and  gett  thy  self  stabbed  some  day'  :  Kirkton,  284  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  39. 


204  THE  COVENANTERS 

being  the  counsel  in  defence.  The  indictment  bore  that  the  prisoners 
were  guilty  of  treason,  rebellion — laesa  majestas,  having  taken  Turner, 
plundered  houses,  renewed  the  Covenant,  and  slain  the  King's 
soldier's.  Their  plea,  that  they  had  received  quarter,  was  met  by 
Nisbet's  reply  that  there  was  no  justum  bellum.  Others  pleaded 
that  had  they  known  of  the  proclamation  they  would  have  laid  down 
their  arms.  All  acknowledged  participation  in  the  rebellion.  '  The 
Assize  all  in  one  voice  by  the  mouth  of  Sir  Alexander  Urquhart 
of  Cromarty  their  chancellor  fand  all  and  every  one  of  the  pannels 
guilty  .  .  .  ffolows  the  Sentence.  My  Lord  Justice  Clerk  and 
Justice  Deputes  decerns  and  adjudges  the  saids  Captain  Andrew 
Arnot,  Major  John  M'Culloch,  Gavin  Hamilton  in  Maudslie  in 
Carlouk  Parish,  John  Gordon  of  Knockbreck,  Cristall  Strang,  tenant 
in  Kilbride,  Robert  Gordon,  brother  to  John  Gordon  of  Knock- 
breck, John  Parker,  walker  in  Kirkbride  Parishin,  John  Ross  in 
Mauchline,  James  Hamilton,  tenant  in  Kithempor,  and  John  Shiells 
in  Titwood,  as  being  found  guilty  by  an  Assize,  of  the  treasonable 
crimes  forsaid,  to  be  taken  ffriday  the  7th  December  instant  betwixt 
2  and  4  hours  afternoon  to  the  Mercate  Cross  of  Edinbrugh  and 
there  to  be  hanged  upon  a  Gibbett  till  they  be  dead,  and  after  they 
are  dead,  their  heads  and  right  arms  to  be  cutt  off  and  disposed 
upon  as  the  Lords  of  his  Majesties  Privy  Council  shall  think  fitt,  and 
all  their  lands,  heretages,  goods  and  gear  to  be  forfault  and  escheat  to 
his  Majesties  use  for  the  treasonable  crimes  forsaids  which  was  pro- 
Execution  of  nounced  for  Doom.''  The  ten  were  simultaneously  hanged  on  a 
rthDecemb«  l^^ge  cross-trcc,  and  thereafter  mutilated:  the  ten  right  hands  being 
1666.  sent  for  fixture  on    Lanark   Tolbooth  ;    the  heads  of  the  Gordons 

and  M'Culloch  to  Kirkcudbright;  the  heads  of  the  Hamiltons, 
Parker,  and  Strang  to  Hamilton  ;  those  of  Ross  and  Shiells  to  Kilmar- 
nock ;  and  that  of  Arnot  to  the  Watergate."     They  died  gallantly, 

'  Book  of  Adjournal ;  Just.  Rec,  i.  159-85.     Their  'Joint  Testimony'  is  in  Naplitali,  215. 

^  JVaphtali,  162  ;  Martyr  Graves,  244,  287.  To  the  general  reader  an  excellent  guide  to  the 
places  famous  in  Covenanting  story  is  A.  B.  Todd's  The  Homes,  Haunts,  and  Battlefields  of  the 
Covenanters  (Edin.,  18S6,  1888),  2  vols.;  also  Rev.  J.  H.  Thomson,  The  Martyr  Graves  of 
Scotland,  1903.     For  the  '  Testimonies '  of  Arnot  and  Shiells,  cf  Naphtali,  224,  226. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    205 

wrote  a  correspondent  of  the  time,  'adhering  to  the  Covenant, 
declaring  they  never  intended  in  the  least  any  rebellion,  and  all  of 
them  prayed  most  fervently  for  His  Majesty's  interest  and  against 
his  enemies  .  .  .  [and  that]  their  blood  lay  only  at  the  prelates'  door.' ' 

The  brothers  Gordon  died  locked  in  each  other's  arms.     Their  Punishments 

,  .,  .  ,  .   .       in  Galloway. 

Joint  Testimony  corroborates  that  of  others  describing  the  atrocities 
in  Galloway.'-  A  few  instances  may  suffice  :  M'Culloch  of  Barholm 
paid  1500  merks  as  Middleton's  exaction,  had  thirty  soldiers  at  eight- 
pence  a  day  quartered  on  him,  paid  Turner  a  hundred  pounds,  had 
his  estate  forfeited,  had  his  eldest  son  thrown  into  prison  for  a  year 
after  his  father's  execution,  while  his  wife's  portion  was  forfeited 
and  given  to  Queensberry  in  r68i  and  afterwards  repurchased. 
Knockbreck,  in  Borgue,  paid  dearly  for  the  laird's  religion— the 
fines,  crops  seized,  plenishing  twice  sold,  the  house  thrice  turned  into 
a  garrison  and  cleaned  out  by  Highlanders,  all  except  the  trenchers 
and  spoons — useless  to  these  rogues — which  were  left  for  Grierson 
of  Lag,  together  with  some  bestial  they  had  not  devoured,  and  two 
sons,  right  'gallant  Gordons,'  hanged. 

John  Neilson,  a  godly  man,  sheltered  the  evicted  Welsh  of  Iron-  Neiisonof 
gray  and  Semple  of  Kirkpatrick-Durham,  and  turned  Corsock 
mansion  into  a  church  for  them.^  For  nonconformity  he  was  sent  to 
Kirkcudbright  jail,  had  Corsock  turned  into  a  cavalry  barracks,  was 
mulcted  in  about  two  thousand  pounds  Scots,  and  made  a  bankrupt 
wanderer.  His  wife  and  family  were  evicted  by  soldiers,  who 
destroyed  his  plenishing  and  sold  his  stock.  His  tenantry  fared  no 
better.  Yet  this  noble  fellow  stood  between  Gray's  pistol  and  its  just 
mark,  for  which,  be  it  remembered  to  Turner's  credit,  he  tried  to 
requite  Neilson  by  pleading  for  his  life  after  Pentland.  Wodrow 
records  that  he  failed  to  save  Neilson  on  account  of  the  representa- 
tions of  Dalgleish,  a  curate.  Neilson's  devoted  wife,  'the  eminently 
godly  Mary  Maclellan,'  was  brutally  used  ;  in  her  absence  her  house 

•  Mein  to  Sir  Joseph  Williamson,  Under-Secretary  of  State,  6th  December  1666:  Siaii 
Papers  (Charles  11.),  106,  107,  325  ;  Dodds,  m  his  J'ifiy  Years,  quotes  many  of  these  important 
letters.  '  Naphtali,  215,  etc.  ^  Wodrow,  ii.  49-53. 


206 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Doom  of 
Neilson, 


was  sacked,  her  household,  five  children  and  a  baby,  turned  adrift, 
the  tenantry  rooked  by  Ballantine,  and  one  of  them,  with  a  wife  and 
infant,  put  in  prison  for  speaking  to  the  laird  ;  and,  last  hardship  of 
all,  '  Bonnie  Dundee '  came  and  '  eated  up  the  Whigues,'  as  he  con- 
fessed. So  what  with  John,  the  heir,  forfeited  and  in  exile,  and 
Thomas,  his  brother,  in  jail  for  non-churchgoing,  no  one  could  have 
hailed  the  Restoration  more  gladly  than  the  godly  wife  who  rests 
in  the  churchyard  of  Kirkpatrick-Durham  since  1697.' 

On  the  7th  December,  Mein  again  informed  Williamson  :  '  On 
Robert"'on  and  Tuesday  next  there  is  as  many  of  the  same  kind  of  lay  elders  to  fill 
others,  14th     the  Stage,  and  so  along,  till  the  remnant  of  the  damned  old  cause  be 

December 

1666.  ferreted  out  of  their  Conventicles  of  retreat.'     He  referred  to  Neilson, 

Alexander  Robertson,  the  preacher,"  George  Crauford  in  Cumnock, 
John  Lindsay  in  Edinburgh,  John  Gordon  in  Irongray,  tried  on  the 
1 2th  December,  and  sentenced  to  death,  dismemberment,  and  for- 
feiture two  days  later.^  M'Kail's  case  was  adjourned  till  he  could 
compear,  on  the  i8th  December,  with  Thomas  Lennox,  Humphry 
Colquhoun,  Mungo  Kaip  in  Evandale,  Ralph  Shiells,  collier  in  Ayr, 
William  Peddan,  merchant  there,  John  Wodrow  or  Wardrop, 
merchant  in  Glasgow,  Robert  M'Millan,  merchant  in  Glasgow,  John 
Wilson  in  Kilmaurs.  They  too  were  sentenced  to  the  death  of 
traitors  on  the  22nd  December.  They  did  not  conceal  the  manly 
stand  they  had  taken.  M'Millan,  Peddan,  Lennox,  and  Lindsay 
were  reprieved.  The  rest  joyfully  accepted  their  fate.*  To  their 
credit  many  gentlemen  chose  to  be  fined  rather  than  sit  on  the 
assize.  While  these  horrors  went  on,  bands  of  little  children  paraded 
the  streets  carrying  toy  pikes  and  batons,  and  beating  drums.' 

The  Testimonies  emitted  by  all  these  sufferers  are  very  affecting 
and  afford  illustrations  of  piety,  purity,  and  patriotism  which  are  in 
striking  contrast  with  the  vices  of  their  judges.     They  rejoiced  in 

'  Stark,  Book  of  Kirkpatrick-Durham,  84  ;  for  Neilson's  'Testimony,'  cf.  Naphtali,  234-7. 

-  This  Alexander  Robertson  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  son  of  Alexander  Robertson, 
minister  of  Urr,  who  died  in  1639.  The  'Testimonies'  of  Robertson,  Crauford,  Wodrow, 
Shiells,  and  WiUon  appear  in  Nap/ttali,  228,  237,  247,  254,  259.  '  Jusi.  Rec,  i.  185-7. 

♦  Ibiii.,  187  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  52.  '  Mein  to  Williamson  :  State  Papers,  106,  348. 


Executions 
on  22nd 
December. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    207 
becoming  witnesses  and    martyrs  for   Christ,    Reformation,    '  in  the  Testimonies 

*  ^  .of  the  Pentland 

power  and  sweetness  thereof,'  and  the  Covenants.  There  is  no  trace  martyrs. 
of  bitterness  in  their  farewells  in  which  they  forgave  their  persecutors. 
All  these  champions  of  the  Covenant  had  the  assurance  of  Neilson : 
'  If  I  had  many  Worlds,  I  would  lay  them  all  down,  as  now  I  do  my 
life  for  Christ  and  His  Cause.''  None  would  purchase  his  life  by 
abjuring  the  Covenants. 

'The  Last  Speech  and  Testimony  of  Mr.  Hew  M'Kaile,' etc.,  is  m 'Kail's 
a  dying  message  worthy  of  the  first  martyrs,  a  bold  manifesto  full  of   ^^  """"v 
the  spirit  of  Luther  and  Knox.'-     His  faith  was  exultant.     He  blessed 
God  because  He  had  '  keeped  my  soul  free  from  all  amazement  and 
fear  of  death.'     His  final  interview  with  his  father  was  touching.     '  I 
called  thee  a  grood  olive   tree  of  fair  fruits,  and  now  a  storm  hath 
destroyed  the  tree,  and  his  fruits  and  branches  ;   I  have  sinned  :  thou 
poor  sheep,  what  hast  thou  done  ? '  said  the  old  father  in  tears.     The 
penitent  youth  replied,  '  Through  coming  short  of  keeping  the  Fifth 
Commandment ' ;   and    '  God's  controversy   with   him   was   for  over- 
valuing his  children,  especially  himself.'     This  belief  in  the  intimate 
care    of  God    made    Hew    happy  even    to    facetiousness.      Though 
suffering,  he  exclaimed  :   '  Oh,  the  fear  of  my  neck  makes  me  forget 
my  leg ! '     The   night   before   the   execution,  he  cheered  his  fellow- 
prisoners  by  saying  merrily  :  '  Eat  to  the  full,  and  cherish  your  bodies, 
that  we  may  all  be  a  fat  Christmas  Pie  to  the  Prelates.' '     His  cousin. 
Dr.   Matthew   M'Kail,   brought  the    influence  of  the    Douglases  to 
bear  on  Sharp  and  Burnet,  but  these  callous  Fathers  in  God  did  not 
interpose.     A  manuscript,   probably  written  by  the   Doctor,  records 
that  'there  came  a  letter  from  the  King  discharging  the  execution  of 
moe :  but  the  Bishop  of  St.  Andrews  kept  it  up  till  Mr.  Hew  was 
executed  :  and  then  no  moe  were  pannelled  for  that  business.'    Gilbert 
Burnet  asserts  that  Archbishop  Burnet  brought  and  then  withheld 
the  letter.     Row  also  chronicles  this  atrocity.' 

As  the  fair  youth,  crippled  and  broken,  dragged  his  way  down 

'  Naphtali,  236.  -  Ibid.,  239.  ■■'•  Ibid.,  '  A  True  Relation,'  etc.,  278. 

'  M'Crie,  Veitch,  35  note  ;  Row,  Blair,  506  ;  Burnet,  i.  425  ;  Defoe,  217. 


208 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Scene  at 
M 'Kail's 
execution, 
22nd  Decem- 
ber 1666. 


Dr.  Malthev 
M 'Kail's 
tlevotion. 


High  Street  to  the  gallows,  crowds  viewed  the  scene  in  tears.  He 
was  now  ecstatic.  Scanningf  that  bewilderingr  sea  of  solemn  faces  he 
gladly  said  :  '  So  is  there  a  greater  and  more  solemn  preparation  in 
heaven  to  carry  iny  soul  to  Christ's  bosom.'  He  boldly  read  his 
memorable  Testimony,  which  is  a  singularly  beautiful  confession  of 
fidelity  and  devotion.^  He  next  confirmed  his  resolution  by  singing 
the  31st  Psalm  : — 

'  In  Thee,  O  Lord,  I  put  my  trust. 
Shamed  let  me  never  be.' 

As  he  mounted  the  ladder  he  cried  out  :  '  I  care  no  more  to  go 
up  this  ladder,  and  over  it,  than  if  I  were  going  home  to  my  father's 
house,'  and  as  he  touched  every  rung,  he  said  :  '  Every  step  is  a  degree 
nearer  heaven.'  Coolly  turning  round,  he  sat  on  a  spar  in  order  to 
address  the  onlookers,  assuring  them  that  their  judges  were  to  be 
exonerated,  and  their  blood  laid  at  the  prelates'  door.  He  was  ready 
to  embrace  the  rope  for  the  Cause  of  God  and  of  the  Covenants — 
once  the  glory  of  the  land.  Opening  his  pocket  Bible  he  read 
encouragement  from  the  last  chapter.  With  the  napkin  over  his 
eyes  he  fancied  he  saw  angels  coming  to  bear  his  soul  away,  and, 
in  a  marvellous  voice,  referred  to  by  Burnet,  he  burst  into  a  tender 
rhapsody  of  '  Farewells '  to  his  kindred,  and  '  VVelcomings '  to  God, 
'  sweet  Jesus  Christ,'  death,  eternal  life,  and  glory.  The  crowd 
wailed.     Scotland  had  '  tint  a  byous  lad  ' — an  extraordinary  youth. 

The  compassionate  Matthew,  who  slept  with  Hew  in  prison  the 
night  before,  now  stood  beneath  the  beam,  watching  for  the  critical 
moment,  to  hang  on  to  the  dangling  legs  and  give  his  cousin  easy  death. 
He  had  already  arranged  with  the  hangman,  Dunmore,  for  Hew's 
black  hair-cloth  coat,  which  he  wore  for  mourning  as  long  as  it  held 
together,  and  for  his  unmutilated  body,  which  was  first  borne  into  the 
Magdalene  Chapel  in  a  coffin  ;  then  being  dressed,  a  usage  forbidden 
to  felons,  it  was  accompanied  by  many  and  laid  in  Greyfriars'  Church- 
yard, 'near  the  east  dyke,  a  little  above  the  stair,  at  the  entry.'" 

'  Naphtali.  239. 

2  Wodrow,  ii.    ,S  ;   Naphtali,  283;   M'Crie,    Veitch,   35  note.     Visible  mourning — dress, 
coffins,  etc.,  being  tokens  of  sympathy — was  prohibited  afterwards. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    209 

Equally  bold  was  Colquhoun,  who,  asking   for  a  fellow  victim's  Gallant  ending 

^  -^  ^  ,  ,  •  1  L       o       •        of  Colquhoun, 

Bible,  laid  it  on  his  wounded  arm  and  read  out  with  rapture  the  bcrip-  22nd  Decem- 
tural  grounds  for  his  fearless  faith  and  felicity.^  '  I  die  not  a  fool,'  he  ''"• 
testified  ;  '  it  is  better  for  me  to  suffer  the  worst  of  deaths,  then  to 
preserve  my  life  by  breaking  the  Oaths  of  God.'"  Rothes  might 
describe  these  heroes  as  '  damd  incorrigeable  phanaticks,'  and  'damd 
fules'  cursed  with  'unparalleled  obdurdness,'  whom  he  would  ex- 
tinguish,— '  not  that  I  am  wearie  of  causing  hang  such  rebellious 
traitors.'^  The  bravery  of  pious  peasantry,  as  inspirational  as  their 
eloquence  was  pentecostal,  is  best  explained  by  the  confession  of 
M'Kail,  that  they  had  'got  a  clear  ray  of  the  Majesty  of  the  Lord.' 

The  Justiciary  Commission,  consisting  of  Linlithgow,  Wigtown,  The  justices 

.in  Glasgow. 

Montgomery  (eighth  Eglinton),  and  Mungo  Murray,  held  a  court  in 
Glasgow  on  17th  December,  and  sent  to  the  gallows,  two  days  after- 
wards, Robert  Buntein  in  Fenwick,  John  Hart  in  West  Quarter, 
Glassford,  Robert  Scott  in  Shavock,  Dalserf,  and  Matthew  Paton, 
shoemaker.  New  Milns.  When  the  condemned  men  attempted  to 
address  the  spectators  from  the  scaffold,  the  soldiers  silenced  them 
with  drums.  That  was  an  old  trick  of  Turner — and  Rothes  and 
Turner  spent  a  merry  Yule  together  in  Glasgow.* 

Similar  tragedies  occurred  at  Ayr,  where  a  court  presided  over  Judicial 
by  Kellie,  Drummond,  Crichton,  sheriff  of  Nithsdale,  and  Hatton  ^^^ '" '" 
(afterwards  Lauderdale),  on  the  24th  December,  sentenced  John 
Grier  in  Four  Merkland,  John  Graham  in  Midtoun  of  Old  Crachan,^ 
James  Smith  in  Old  Crachan,  Alexander  MacCulloch  in  Carsphairn, 
James  MacMillan  in  Marduchat,  George  MacCartney  in  Blairkennie, 
John  Short  in  Dairy,  James  Blackwood  in  Fenwick,  William  Welsh 
in  Kirkpatrick,  John  M'Coull  in  Carsphairn,  Cornelius  Anderson, 
tailor  in  Ayr,  and  James  Muirhead  in  Irongray,  to  be  forfeited  and 
hanged,  and  their  heads  and  right  hands  exposed  at  Ayr,  on  the  27th 
December,   excepting  two,   Grier  and  Welsh,   who  were   to  die,   be 

'  Wodrow,  ii.  58.  -  'Testimony'  in  Naphtali,  257.  ^  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  254. 

■'  Just.  Rec,  i.  18S  ;  Row,  Blai>\  506  ;  Tombstone,  Glasgow  Cathedral  :  Martyr  Graves,  138. 
^  Clachan  (?)  of  Dairy,  Kirkcudbrightshire  ;  Book  of  Adjournal,  24th  December. 

VOL.   II,  2  D 


2IO 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Sutherland, 
the  Christian 
hangman. 


lopped,  and  be  exhibited  at  Dumfries  Market  Cross  on  2nd  January.^ 
The  Ayr  hangman  ran  away,  and  his  neighbour  in  Irvine  refused  to 
act.  In  their  dilemma  the  authorities  with  terrors,  bribe  of  life,  and 
intoxicants,  induced  the  defective  Cornelius  to  hang  his  brethren,  two 
of  whom  were  removed  to  Irvine  and  died  joyfully  there.^ 

The  case  of  this  Irvine  hangman,  William  Sutherland,  is  unique. 
Sutherland  tells  his  own  soul's  story.^  He  was  a  Strathnaver  High- 
lander, illiterate,  yet  anxious  to  learn,  who  left  cattle-herding  and 
came  to  Paisley,  where  he  eked  out  life  by  sweeping  chimneys  and 
hanging  an  odd  witch.  Paisley  then  slighted  their  obliging  '  Dougal 
Cratur,'  who,  discovering  that  a  more  liberal  spirit  prevailed  in  Irvine, 
went  thither  and  offered  to  hang  all  and  sundry  so  long  as  the 
survivors  kindly  aided  him  in  learning  to  read  the  Bible.  In  that 
Lollard  atmosphere  the  rude  Celt  learned  to  love  the  Scriptures,  to 
hate  bishops,  and  to  contract  a  moral  sensibility  which  made  him 
sometimes  scruple  at  his  killing  work^ — a  virtue  which  Turner  and 
Claverhouse  never  knew.  Fearing  to  be  needed  in  Ayr,  he  con- 
templated flight,  but  first  went  to  church  to  hear  a  sermon.  His 
Bible  opened  at  the  text,  '  Ye  have  not  yet  resisted  unto  blood, 
striving  against  sin,'  and  he  interpreted  the  oracle  in  favour  of  the 
Covenanters.  When  the  Provost  called  him  out  of  church  to  go  to 
Ayr,  the  hangman  refused  and  was  clapped  in  jail,  whence  a  guard 
removed  him  to  that  '  auld  toun.'  Before  setting  out  he  sought 
strength  in  a  'mutchkin  of  ale.'  In  the  Tolbooth  of  Ayr,  White,  a 
curate,  plied  him  with  Jewish  precedents  for  killings,  which  Suther- 
land nullified  by  gospel  texts- — their  dispute  affording  sport  to  the 
guardsmen.  White,  beaten,  gave  in,  and  believed  the  devil  to  be  in 
the  hangman.     The  judges  next  took  him  in  hand,  and  found  him 


'  Just.  Rec,  i.  189  ;  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  266.  The  tombstone  in  Ayr  churchyard  has  MacMillan 
for  MacCulloch  :  Martyr  Graves,  310;  similarly  Patrick  Walker,  5?x  Saints,  i.  319.  In  a 
very  inaccurate  doggerel  epitaph  on  the  back  of  the  Ayr  tombstone,  'Pontius  M'Adam'  is 
made  the  judge,  and  thumbkins  are  mentioned  out  of  time.  Two  fine  table  stones  in  Dumfries 
churchyard  keep  green  the  memory  of  Williatii  (sic)  Grierson  and  William  Welsh,  '  whose 
head  once  fixd  up  on  the  Bridge  port  stood':  Martyr  Graves,  471,  472.     Cf  Photograph. 

'■'  Cornelius  perished  a  wretched  outcast  in  Ireland  :  Wodrow,  ii.  53-4  ;  Six  Saints,  i.  318. 

2  Wodrow,  ii.  54  note  ;  Naphtali,  162. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    211 

obdurate  in  his  refusal  to  execute.  Dalyell,  Drummond,  and  others 
tried  the  Muscovite  method,  threatening  him  with  the  boots,  to  which 
the  waggish  prisoner  invited  them  to  add  the  spurs  too,  with  boiUng 
lead,  hanging,  shooting,  a  barrel  full  of  spikes,  but  it  was  to  no 
purpose ;  Sutherland  would  neither  be  coerced  nor  persuaded  to 
butcher  his  fellow-Christians,  and  was  liberated.^ 

It  was  not  till  the  15th  August  that  the  trial  of  the  Pentland  Trial  of 
fugitives  began  under  Atholl,  when  fifty-six  rebels  were  called  and 
did  not  compear.^  In  their  absence  the  trial  proceeded,  and  after  an 
assize  was  sworn.  Sir  William  Ballantine  being  one  of  them,  and 
Turner  and  Lawrie  of  Blackwood  gave  evidence,  all  the  accused  were 
condemned  as  traitors  to  forfeiture  and  death,  and  were  sentenced 
and  denounced  accordingly. 

Sharp  had  long  been  riding  for  a  fall.  He  crushed  the  little  war  Sharp  an 
without  feeling  appeased.  His  communication  to  the  Government '"^"j^^j"^^"" 
saying  Scotland  was  orderly  required  some  explanation,  after  the 
King  read  another  letter  to  a  courtier  wherein  the  Primate  said,  '  All 
was  wrong ;  no  man  was  faithful  to  the  King,  they  were  all  sold.'  ^ 
Tweeddale  and  the  Treasurer- Depute,  Bellenden,  kept  Lauderdale 
informed  of  the  pitiless  violence  of  the  party  for  annihilation,  and 
of  the  hatred  borne  towards  Sharp  and  his  abettors,  the  clergy  being 
looked  on  as  wolves.  Lauderdale  now  appears  with  feline  cunning- 
sporting  with  his  victim,  Sharp.  Since  1665  Bellenden  had  been 
warning  Lauderdale  of  Sharp's  hidden  malignity,  and  now  that 
victory  had  made  the  Primate  insufferable,  the  terrified  Bellenden, 
in  bad  French,  implored  the  Secretary  to  rid  Scotland  of  its  miser- 
able incubus.*     Politic  Lauderdale  bided  his  time. 

The  unpreparedness  of  the  Government  to  oppose  a  local  rising, 
or  Dutch  landing-parties,  necessitated  a  meeting  of  the  Estates,  on 

'  Hatton,  in  a  letter  to  Sharp,  6th  May  1675,  refers  to  .Sutherland,  the  hangman,  con- 
cerning whom  Ross  spoke  to  the  Privy  Council  ;  Miscell.  Scot.  Hist.  Soc,  288  (Edin.,  1S93). 

'"  For  process  and  names,  ct.  Just.  Rec,  i.  230;  VVodrow,  li.  66.  ^  Kirkton,  255. 

*  Add.  MSS.  23123,  fol.  212  ;  23125,  fol.  167,  175  :  'Pour  I'amour  de  Dieu  livre  nous  de 
cet  maheureus  et  mal  inlentione  person  .  .  .  car  Ic  fardau  d'un  prester  et  trop  pisant  pour 
niais  epoles';  Laud.  J'up.,  i.  240,  259. 


212 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Meeting  of 
Parliament, 
1667. 


Licence  to 
spoil. 


Atrocities  of 
Dalyell  and 
Drummond. 


9th  January,  to  vote  ample  supplies  to  the  King.^  By  the  King's 
instructions,  Hamilton,  instead  of  Sharp,  was  made  president,  and  to 
emphasise  this  rebuff,  Rothes  had  the  royal  mandate  to  enjoin  the 
Primate  to  confine  himself  to  his  own  diocese.  It  gave  Rothes 
pleasure  to  inform  Lauderdale  that  Sharp  was  '  strangely  cast  down, 
yeay,  lower  than  the  dust.'"  An  abject  melancholy  brought  the 
proud  priest  to  death's  door.  He  was  not  able  to  carry  that  '  sanctified 
cross'  which,  ten  years  before,  he  adjured  Lauderdale  in  the  Tower 
to  bear  for  'conscience,  country,  and  Christ's  church  in  it,'  thereby 
testifying  to  '  that  established  {then  Pj'esbyterimi\  doctrine  and  dis- 
cipline purchased  at  no  small  cost.'  Sharp  was  fully  paying  up  in 
shame,  tears,  and  blood  for  his  treachery.  Gossip  ran  that  he  was 
to  be  deposed.  Lauderdale,  however,  knew  how  to  make  him 
obedient  to  whip,  and  still  had  a  use  for  the  Primate  who  might 
keep  the  clergy  'from  flying  out  to  impertinencies.'^ 

Two  proclamations  (25th  March)  calling  up  the  personal  weapons 
and  horses  of  non-jurors  and  non-churchgoers,  opened  new  doors  to 
the  spoilers.  Another  proclamation  (13th  June)  rendered  heritors 
and  parishioners  liable  for  fines  and  compensation  exigible  for  assaults 
on,  or  affronts  to,  the  well-affected  clergy.  This  was  a  new  licence 
to  rob.  These  orders  were  no  dead  letters  in  face  of  the  King's 
threat  that  the  leniency  of  judges  would  not  be  brooked.  Papists, 
however,  were  overlooked.^ 

After  the  battle  of  RuUion  Green,  the  troops  under  Dalyell  and 
Drummond  marched  to  Ayrshire.  Naphtali  chronicles  the  atrocities 
which  followed.^  Dalyell,  having  tasted  blood,  'acted  the  Muscovite 
too  grossly,'  and  thus  expressed  his  one  idea  regarding  the  'mad 
phanaticks,' — '  ther  was  noe  mor  to  be  doune  bot  tak  them  out  and 
hang  them.'**  Archbishop  Burnet  also  informed  Sheldon  that,  if 
Dalyell's  policy  of  extermination  had  been  followed,  '  I  am  confident 
this  kingdome  had  by  this  tyme  (9th  August  1667)  been  in  a  very 


'  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  vii.  540. 
'  Add.  MSS.  23127,  fol.  191. 
*  Pages  169-75. 


-  Laud.  Pap.,  i.  269,  270,  285. 
♦  Wodrow,  ii.  83,  84,  86,  87. 
"  LmuJ.  Pap.,  ii.  11. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    213 

happy  and  quiet  condition.' '      After  the  fight,    Dalyell's   red   hand 

wrote  to  Lauderdale  :   '  This  Much  I  dar  saye  that  fanatik  parte  vil 

never  be  redemit  hot  vit  Much  moir  atemps  then  this  And  I  beseik 

your  Loirdship  not  to  expek  anay  good  from  anay  favors  tham  fr  I 

am  Confedent  thay  vil  all  Join  vit  the  Couenant  or  anay  hououer  to 

overturn    Episkopase.""      This    illiterate    demon    set    his    uniformed 

bandits   a   cruel    example.      When   ordinary  tortures   did  not  make 

ingenuous  confessors,  Dalyell  threatened  to  kill,  spit,  roast,  or  burn 

alive  his  prisoners.    Other  victims,  stripped  half-naked,  were  crammed 

into  filthy  jails  wherein  they  could  only  stand  up.     He  caused  David  The  shooting 

Finlay  in  Newmills  to  be  taken  and  examined  as  to  his  business  in  pinjay. 

Lanark,  on  that  day  on  which  the  rebels  visited  it ;  and  because  he 

could  not  name  these  strangers,  he  ordered  a  party  to  shoot  him  at 

the  gallows-foot.     The  simple  man,  thinking  that  the  goat-like  monster 

was  jesting,  prevailed  on  the  lieutenant  to  return  and  ask  Dalyell  for 

a  respite  till   morning.      Dalyell,    in  a  rage,    threatened   the  officer, 

declaring  that   '  he   would   teach   him   to   obey  his  orders   precisely.' 

The  lieutenant  accordingly  ordered  the  soldiers  to  shoot  and  strip 

this  unoffending  man. 

The  revolting  story  reached  Sir  Robert   Moray,  who   informed  sir  Robert 
Lauderdale  that  Naphtali  '  tells  exactly  the  whole  story  as  I  have  cJ^'oborates 
heard  it  related.'^     In  all  likelihood  another  murder  is  referred  to  \iy  Napiuaii. 
Burnet  in  this  connection,   thus,  '  for  he  was  then  drunk,  when  he 
ordered  one  to  be  hanged,  because  he  would  not  tell  where  his  father 
was,  for  whom  he  was  in  search.'^     Wodrow  instances  the  brutality 
of  Mungo  Murray,   who  hanged  to  a  tree,  tied  by  the  thumbs,  two 
peasants  who  gave  shelter   to   two   insurgents.      They   would   have 
perished  had  not  two  merciful  soldiers  cut  them  down.^     Fines  came 
in ;    churches    began    to    fill    with    nervous    hearers,    as    a    result   of 
Dalyell's  practical  gospel. 

In   Nithsdale  and   Galloway,  Turner  and   Ballantine^  with  their 

'  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.,  App.,  Letter  xxxii.  -  Add.  MSS.  28747,  fo'-  8. 

'  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  88,  loth  December  1667  ;  Naphtali,  170,  171  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  63. 
*  Hist.,  i.  426.  °  Wodrow,  ii.  64.  ^  Or  Bannatyne. 


214  THE  COVENANTERS 

Villainies  of  redcoats  devoured  the  country  with  the  pitilessness  of  locusts.  The 
almost  incredible  indictment  in  Naphtali — stabbing,  stripping,  burglary, 
rape,  torture  by  match,  imprisoning,  spoiling  the  innocent — is  fully 
corroborated  now.^ 

Wodrow  gives  a  concrete  example  of  the  villainy  of  Ballantine, 
who  suggested  immorality  to  the  wife  of  the  landlord  of  an  alehouse 
in  Balmaghie  in  his  very  presence.  For  resisting  the  assault,  Ballan- 
tine struck  the  host  dead.  A  Royalist  gentleman  interposed  and  seized 
Ballantine,  who  called  in  his  men,  and  had  the  gentleman  thrown 
down  to  lie  all  night  roped  like  a  beast,  till,  on  Sabbath  morning, 
friends  arrived  and  became  surety  for  the  sufferer.  After  a  debauch 
the  soldiers  fell  on  plundering  the  house,  and,  in  sheer  devilry,  ran 
off  the  drink  they  could  not  consume.^ 

If  Government  agents  could  thus  be  procured  publicly  to  commit 
atrocities,  more  like  the  acts  of  heathen  than  of  Scots,  what  share  of 
the  reported  crimes  of  the  day  is  to  be  apportioned  to  the  unbridled 
scum  of  the  population,  who  professed  no  morality  ?  The  Books 
of  Adjournal  testify  how  rife  certain  kinds  of  crime  were.'  Up  till 
now,  in  defence  or  retaliation,  the  Covenanters  had  not  resented  their 
treatment  much  further  than  in  entering  the  manses  of  Borgue,  Glen- 
cairn,  Dunscore,  Irongray,  Closeburn,  and  other  places,  probably 
more  to  terrify  informers  than  to  wreak  vengeance — loot  being  out  of 
The  insurgents  the  question.  The  accusation  is  contemporary  that  the  soldiers 
not  criminals,  masqueraded  as  Whigs  in  order  to  plunder ;  and  there  is  no  proof 
that  the  insurgents  were  criminals.^  Dalyell,  with  blood  in  his 
nostrils,  was  continually  scenting  incipient  rebellion  and  writing  to 
London  creating  a  scare.  Incidents  were  exaggerated.^  Even 
Drummond  and  Burnet  were  sent  to  court  to  'blow  that  coal,' and 
Dalyell  also  clamoured  to  go  to  secure  forfeitures. 

'  Page  174  ;  Laud.  Pap..,  ii.  25,  26,  62,  82,  83.  2  Wodrow,  ii.  65. 

■'  Just.  Rec,  i.  2  passim  ;  also  the  unpublished  Minutes.  *  Wodrow,  ii.  18. 

•'■  Tweeddale  reports  that  some  rebels  had  sorely  beat  '  if  not  kild  one  old  man.  Black, 
minister  of  Closeburn.'  He  was  aged  forty-nine,  and  lived  till  1684  :  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  19. 
Black  refused  the  Test  in  1681,  but,  after  petitioning  the  Council,  and  taking  it,  was 
reponed  in  1682. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    215 

Now    that    Charles    11.    was    promoting    toleration    in    England,  Lauderdale's 

J  J  ,  investigations. 

and  Clarendon,  its  opponent,  was  in  consequence  to  be  'decourted, 
Lauderdale,  influenced  by  the  peace-loving  antagonists  of  the  military 
ring,  had  no  better  policy  than  the  dispatch,  in  June  1667,  of  his  trusty 
under-secretary,    Sir   Robert    Moray,    to  discover  the   true   trend   of 
affairs  in  the  north,  and  to  see  '  how  the  bowles  roll.' 

Moray,  now  getting  old,  was  one  of  the  most  reputable  men  of  his 
age.  By  family  a  Perthshire  gentleman,  a  veteran  colonel  of  the 
continental  wars,  a  staunch  friend  of  the  two  Charleses,  a  former 
Senator  of  Justice  and  Privy  Councillor,  a  distinguished  naturalist, 
physicist,  astronomer,  and  mathematician,  a  wise  diplomatist,  who 
preferred  study  to  politics,  and  a  spring  on  his  violin  to  the  clangour 
of  camps,  Moray  was  a  man  whose  kindliness  of  nature  ever  made 
him  an  advocate  for  clemency  and  moderation.^ 

This  '  cunning  and  dexterous  man,'  as  Clarendon  so  aptly  desig-  Sir  Robert 
nated  Moray,  at  once  discovered  the  source  of  the  troubles.  The  gth  July  1667.' 
cabal  of  booted  apostles  aimed  at  being  permanent  governors  battening 
on  legal  loot.  Official  life  was  rotten,  and  smelled  of  liquor  and  dirt. 
'  Now  let  me  tell  you,'  he  reported,  '  that  all  any  body  can  tell  you  of 
the  corrupt  state  of  things  and  persons  here  can  as  little  make  you 
imagine  it  as  it  is,  as  one  who  never  saw  the  ruins  of  London  can 
comprehend  it  by  any  description  any  body  can  make  of  it.""  He 
enlarged  on  his  experiences  to  this  effect — the  rumour  regarding  '  mad 
phanaticks  '  about  to  rebel  were  false  '  starrlight  stories ' ;  officers  were 
defrauding  their  men  of  their  pay ;  Hamilton,  Dalyell,  and  others 
were  so  mean,  on  the  one  hand,  as  to  compound  with  rebels  for  a  few^ 
merks  'and  one  for  a  stick,'  while,  on  the  other,  they  illegally  exacted 
£1700  from  Loudoun's  tenantry  ;  Ballantine  was  a  notorious  spoiler, 
and  Steel,  minister  of  Kells,  had  informed  him  that  Turner,  who 
beggared  his  parish  so  that  the  parishioners  were  unable  to  pay  his 
stipend,    'was   a    saint   to    Balantine,'^    the    treasury  was   a    den   of 

'  Scot.  Rev.,  V.  22.  -  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  20,  9th  July  1667. 

^  This  was  in  keeping  with  a  complaint  of  the  papist  Harries  to  Tweeddale  :   Laud.  Pap., 
ii.  24. 


2i6  THE  COVENANTERS 

robbers ;  his  country  sorely  needed  an  autocrat  to  suppress  its  greedy 
oppressors.' 
TheCovenan-  Thus  the  official  reporter  outrivalled  the  description  of  the 
con-oborated"^  miseries  of  Scotland,  then  recently  published  in  an  anonymous  work 
entitled  '  Naphtali,  or  the  Wrestlings  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  for  the 
Kingdom  of  Chi-ist,  etc.  .  .  .  1667.'  Moray  also  referred  to  this  book 
as  '  all  that  a  toung  set  on  fire  by  hell  can  say  of  things  and  persons 
hereaway.'-  Moray  noted  the  veering  round  to  Lauderdale  of  the 
battered  weathercock,  Sharp,  who  was  now  hinting  that  Rothes  and 
Dalyell  had  arranged  the  rebellion,  discarding  these  bloodstained 
buttresses  of  the  Church,  praying  for  reconciliation  with  the  Secretary, 
wishing  the  abolition  of  the  militia,  standing  for  '  lenity  and  gentle- 
ness at  present.'  Moray  naively  advised  his  chief  '  to  make  use  of  a 
knave  as  well  as  another,'  for  '  certainly  you  are  not  to  learn  to  know 
him — Sharp.'  How  the  two  diplomatists  must  have  chuckled  when 
they  saw  bishops  and  clergy  following  that  '  tinkling  cymbal '  of  a 
bellwether,  as  Moray  wrote :  '  What  a  silly  company  of  people  they 
are,  and  how  useful  one  of  them  is  to  manage  the  rest !  '^  Lauderdale 
brought  Sharp  to  his  reward  and  became  reconciled,  saying  he  wished 
'  fair  play  in  time  to  come,'  as  he  stood  strong  for  crown  and  crozier.'' 
Sharp  swallowed  the  bait.  It  was  in  the  drama,  concocted  by  Moray 
and  staged  by  Lauderdale,  that  the  Sovereign  should  again  honour 
The  resurrec-  the  Primate.  The  King  sent  a  commendatory  letter  to  Sharp,  which 
tion  of  Sharp,  j^^jg  }^jj„  g^  j^^^j  ^N\\}s\  joy  that  he  replied  to  Lauderdale  that  he  was 
'wholly  his';  and  that  'His  Majesties  hand  with  the  diamond  seal 
was  to  me  as  a  resurrection  from  the  dead.'''  Into  that  polluted  hand 
the  stronger  Sheldon  once  refused  to  put  the  communion  cup.''  But 
the  cowed  whelp  licks  the  hand  that  feeds  and  whips  it. 

The  conciliatory  policy  inspired  by  Moray  was  soon  announced, 
and   with  a  change  of  managers,    the   reduction   of    Rothes   to   the 

'  Moray's  Letters,  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  13,  14,  20,  34,  39,  62,65,  68,  70. 

2  Ql.postca,  pp.  217,  218,  and  note  i  :  Land.  Pap.,  ii.  88. 

'  Moray  to  Lauderdale,  20th  September  :  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  71,  86,  87.  ■*  Ibid.,  ii.  40,  41. 

'  Sliarp  to  Lauderdale,  1 8th  January  1668  :  Add.  MSS.  23128,  fol.  273. 

°  Burnet,  i.  313  note. 


ROTHES  AND  THE  RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN   217 

Chancellorship,  the  disbanding  of  all  but  a  few  regulars — peace  with  Conciliation 
Holland  having  been  made — it  was  intended  to  return  the  sword  to  Moray. 
its  scabbard.      Dalyell  found  his  list  of  forfeitures  useless,  and  Burnet 
felt  as  if  '  the  Gospell  was  banished  out  of  his  diocey  that  day.'  ^ 

Moray's  proposal  that  all  who  took  a  bond  of  peace — a  few 
undesirables  excepted — should  receive  pardon  and  indemnity,  was 
approved  by  Charles,  and  opposed  by  the  blood-and-booty  cabal, 
because  it  killed  their  paying  trade.  The  proclamation  of  this  act  of 
grace  breathed  a  kindly  spirit  towards  those  obliging  themselves  not 
to  rise  in  arms  without  authority,  and  producing  a  cautioner  before 
New  Year's  Day.  The  three  classes  excepted  were:  (i)  forty  lay 
and  sixteen  clerical  insurgents — Wallace,  MacLellan,  and  other  west- 
landmen  ;  (2)  the  forfeited  already  scheduled  ;  and  (3)  molesters  of 
the  settled  incumbents." 

To  render  the  Act  effective,  heritors  were  enjoined  to  summon  all  Moray's  bond 
on  their  lands  to  subscribe  the  bond,  and  to  dispossess  them  should"  ^^"' 
they  refuse.     The  hair-splitting  Scots,  with  tender  consciences,  read 
more  into  this  surety  of   lawburrows  than  Moray  intended,  as  if  it 
bound  them  to  the  past  and  future  policy  of  the  Crown.     Others — 
Campbell,  Dunlop,  Montgomery,  etc. — welcomed  it  and  got  release 
from  prison.     Of  those  aimed  at  by  the  Act  two  hundred  and  eighteen 
came  to  terms,  and  three  hundred,  mostly  '  mean  persons,'  remained 
obdurate.     Many  were  sceptical  of  the  royal  clemency  and  refused  to 
surrender,  and  others  took  advantage  of  it  by  demanding  an  inquiry 
into  the  grievances  at  the  bottom  of  the  Rising.     There  was  no  little 
irony  in  the  circumstance   that  on  the  first  anniversary  of  Rullion 
Green,  the  Council  appointed  a  Committee  to  report  on  the  excesses 
of  the   troops   under   Turner   in   Galloway,   and   on   the  same  day 
Clarendon  was  preparing  to  flee  into  exile.     The  country  rang  with 
the  terrible  charges  of  Naphtali,  which  Sharp  said  he  expected  to  The  effect  of 
'debauch  the  people  to  a  Munster  tragedy  ' ;  but  neither  the  frequent    ''^'''"• 
banning  and  burning  of  the  book,  nor  the  answer  by  Bishop  Honyman, 

'  Laud.  I'ap.,  ii.  68  ;  Kirkton,  269. 

-  Reg.  Sec.  Cone,  Acta,  726-34,  9th  October  1667  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  92,  93,  94. 

VOL.   II.  2  E 


2l8 


THE  COVENANTERS 


The  CoHnci 
and  the 
mililary 
scandals. 


Turner  dis- 
charged. 


Ballantine 
banished, 
i66S. 


diminished  the  sensation  it  produced.  Mackenzie  attributed  the 
murderous  intentions  of  James  Mitchell  to  the  principles  set  forth 
in  Nap  hi  all} 

The  Privy  Council  met  on  20th  February  to  receive  the  report 
on  the  Turner  scandals,  and,  as  was  to  be  expected  from  undeniable 
facts,  and  from  the  foregone  conclusion  that  some  scapegoats  should 
be  turned  adrift  with  the  crimes  of  greater  offenders  on  their  heads, 
the  Committee  detailed  under  twenty-one  heads  the  offences  com- 
plained of,  and  concluded  that  '  every  one  of  the  foregoing  articles  is 
made  out  by  information  upon  oath.'"  Turner's  defence  was  that  he 
had  only  lifted  ^30,000  Scots,  and  had  always  mitigated  the  severity 
authorised.  The  Council  sent  the  report  to  the  King,  who  ordered 
Turner  to  be  discharged  from  the  service.  Dreading  the  fate  of 
becoming  '  ane  absolute  beggar,'  this  pitiless  oppressor  of  the  innocent 
wrote  a  whining  letter  to  Lauderdale,  imploring  him  to  intercede  with 
the  King  to  save  him  from  the  '  ruine  of  a  poor  gentleman.'^  It  is  to 
the  credit  of  his  cruel  abettor.  Archbishop  Burnet,  that  the  prelate 
wrote  to  Secretary  Williamson  pleading  for  this  '  very  honest  gentle- 
man,' and  minimising  his  offences  on  the  ground  :  '  I  have  heard  him 
recommended  for  the  same  acts  for  which  he  is  now  condemned  :  and 
soldiers  think  they  do  not  offend  when  they  obey  their  superior 
officers'  orders."'  The  Council  afterwards  took  a  more  lenient  view 
of  Turner's  practices/  A  similar  investigation  into  the  ledgers  of, 
and  into  the  ruffianism  alleged  against,  Ballantine  also  justified  the 
authorities  in  sending  that  gory-handed  Gentleman  of  the  Bed- 
chamber to  the  pestilential  Tolbooth,  fining  him  in  ^200  sterling,  and 
banishing  him  from  Scotland."  That  reckless  hackster  took  to  arms 
abroad,  and  met  a  soldier's  death  at  the  siege  of  Graves.^ 


'  Memoirs,  326  ;  Aldis,  fj'sf,  1852,  A  Su>~i'ey  . .  .  of  Naphtali,  etc.,  pt.  i.  1668  ;  pt.  ii.  1669  ; 
cf.  Stewart's  answer  \x\  Jus  Populi,  etc.,  1669  ;  Wodiow,  ii.  225  ;  ill.  229  note  ;  iv.  444. 

-  Reg.  Sec.  Cone,  Ada,  36,  20th  February  1668. 

^  1 2th  March  :  Laing  MSS.,  iv.  Div.  i.  137. 

••  Dodds,  Fifty  Years,  192,  citing  Letter  in  State  Pap.  Ofllce.      •'  Reg.  Sec.  Cone..,  Ada,  62. 

"  loth  April :  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  25,  26,  62,  83,  100,  1 16  ;  Just.  Rec,  i.  52  ;  cf.  Index. 

'  For  Mr.  Andrew  Lang's  futile  attempt  to  turn  Turner  into  a  saint,  see  his  paper,  '  A 
Christian  under  the  Covenant,'  in  Blackwood's  Magazine,  clxxiv.,  July  1903. 


ROTHES  AND  THE   RISING  OF  RULLION  GREEN    219 

With  these  bandits  degraded  and  dismissed,  and  the  Dalyell  party  Failure  of 
temporarily  checked,  the  executive  made  efforts,  in  the  Spring  of  °'^^^^  '''• 
166S,  to  stop  conventicling,  and  to  induce  subscription  of  the  bond  of 
peace.  The  exiles  in  Holland  wrote  reviling  the  '  black  bond '  and 
recommending  rejection  of  it.  Some  weak-kneed  insurgents,  such  as 
Robert  Cannon,  younger  of  Mardrogat,  in  Galloway,  who  afterwards 
turned  informer,  gave  in,  but  many  preferred  banishment  to  Virginia 
to  defection.  A  warrant  was  issued  in  May  to  seize  eighty  notorious 
refusers  of  the  Indemnity,  among  whom  were  some  who  evaded 
capture  and  afterwards  became  martyrs.'  Conventicling  spread  even 
in  Edinburgh,  and  the  clergy  were  more  despised  than  ever."  Local 
garrisons  were  established,  and  slave-ships  transported  irreconcil- 
ables  to  Virginia  and  Tangier,  all  with  no  perceptible  effect. 

One  of  those  sentenced  to  sail  for  Tangier  was  Michael  Bruce,  Michael  Bruce. 
from  Killinchy  in  Ireland,  a  great-grandson  of  the  famous  Robert, 
deposed  for  nonconformity,  and  seized  while  conventicling  in  Airth, 
not  without  a  bloody  bout  in  which  soldiers  and  he  were  wounded. 
Bruce  founded  his  defence  on  the  authority  of  Scripture.  They  sent 
him  to  a  higher  authority  meantime — the  King,  who,  being  influenced 
by  courtiers,  asked  that  Bruce  should  be  sent  to  London,  whence  he 
transferred  him  to  his  work  in  Ireland.  At  the  Revolution,  Bruce 
was  settled  in  Anwoth.* 

Among  the  oppressed  at  this  time  was  Thomas  Hog  of  Kiltearn,  Hog  of 
who,  taken  from  tolbooth  to  tolbooth,  buffeted  between  the  Bass  and 
the  Castle  Rock,  and  by  the  Council  designated  'a  noted  keeper  of 
conventicles,'  appears  to  have  borne  the  malignity  of  Sharp  in  an 
especial  degree.  In  a  singular  way  Sharp  acknowledged  the  in- 
vincible old  Protester's  talents  and  influence  by  advising  the  Council 
to  immure  him  in  a  cell  worse  than  that  which  had  ruined  his  health  ; 
while  he  asserted,  '  that  the  prisoner  did,  and  was  in  a  capacity 
to  do,   more  hurt  to  their  interests,  sitting  in  his  elbow  chair,  than 

'  Wodrow,  ii.  loS,  109  note. 

-  Tueeddale  to  Lauderdale  :  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  113. 

'  Row,  Blair,  520,  521. 


220  THE  COVENANTERS 

twenty  others  could  do  by  travellino;  from  this  land  to  the  other  .  .  . 
and  ...  if  there  were  any  place  in  the  prison  worse  than  another,  he 
should  be  put  there.'  To  this  'closest  prison'  Hog  was  remanded, 
and  there,  to  his  own  amazement,  recovered  health,  for  which  he 
ironically  blessed  '  good  Doctor  '  Sharp  ! 

'  Memoirs  of  Mrs.  William  Vcitch,  Mr.  Thomas  Hog  of  Kiltcarn,  etc.,  104  (Edin.,  1846). 


Graves  of  Peiitland  Martyrs  in  St.  Michael's 
Churchyard,  Dumfries 


Headstone  of  four  Martyrs,  in  the 
Cliurchyard,  Hamilton 


.'Vi?':;"!!nr; 


LivtOr :, 


"5  niirl  U'^'^v*'  ^f. 
l';>  fmiii-  .."hlth  vC-  (he  V<"iJ''''  ■■    • 

,„)<    nKjur-/l  ih.-uoli  lif«  ifK,^  ;l..fl    , 
',  ,1    ..,(1,  nunttans  cilul  o(ha   Of'      ., 

l^7i,r  iiillict  '.lid  niftly  <o  flfcifli  P^'f)"/'",; 

■• ! ' ,Sy  fifdr''/i'(>"<  ,'i"iv  '«■/  ^i"  ir:i""''. 

i^X'dVli  IriillV'.!   V(rix  jml'tl  liyfdinoil'  CtiilhlV<>- 

>Aiii3  (ill  rilciin  If.  Mnpcr  nnm"irK't  lilnod 
"They    ditl  rndiivr    (dr  wrtilli   of,  c\ 


nrooc  fu 


(t-ndis   nud 


DlOOfJ      y  ^ 
CllCIMItS^k 

niitirtcs^f . 


,,....'  ycl  ihc'/'rc  Unj/c  v/lio/ri>ni/licbiroiilS(<iiM^ 
i^Alid  iin«'  (riumpdin  glory  >'*/i(li  the  LAMn  ^j 


.lliftcli  t'1inl(icr<:  di. ollirr,';  nolJp  ni.invrcjlprl 
;IF.<;us  cMat.sTilir  1110/!  pAt)  0/  (ficirr,M 

'^l  ^pi.i iaji)^?'  'ifYcOfe^' Annnvsiffl 

Original  Monument  erected  to  the  Martyrs 
Greyfriars  Churchyard,   lulinburgh 


/ 


iJ3  J  y-'^ 

',:KUp<^rii\>Mj^^f.^  HA' 
,7ANDR£V^' PlTlJU-OCHr  w^; 

\f;.)iU,i,^ma«1ilJC0D!lJrA<il 

m.  ifiir  ;»W((/bAviD  Hackstoi 


Martyrs'  M^ 


Cupar  (File) 


'I'lie  Grassniarkct,  Edinburgh 
IHE  GRASSMARKET,   EDINBURGH.  AND   MONUMENTS  OF  MARTVR.S 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       221 


CHAPTER    XXIV 


THE    SCHEMES   OF    ANGELIC    LEIGHTON    AND    IRON-HANDED    LAUDERDALE 


Where  was  the  angelic  Leighton  all  this  time  when  the  vice-gerent  of  Robert 
Christ  acted  Nero,  when  ministers  of  justice  crushed  guilty  and  inno-  visionary 
cent  Indifferently,  when  feminine  virtue  was  not  safe  from  unbridled 
cavaliers,  and  clergy  were  not  fit  company  for  squeamish  Turner  ? ' 
What  Robert  Baillie  said  of  Leighton  in  1658  was  true  of  him  to  the 
end  :  '  Mr.  Lichtoun  does  not  [nought]  to  count  of,  but  looks  about 
him  in  his  chamber.'  -  The  Episcopal  ministers  of  1666  reckoned  this 
their  golden  age,  and  hailed  the  cavaliers  as  a  divine  legion  of 
protectors.  '  By  the  banks  of  Allan  Water '  Leighton  dwelt  apart, 
wishing  the  churchyard  would  open  for  him  a  door  to  heaven. 
He  moped  over  his  own  sins  and  the  lack  of  virtue  in  others.  The 
Register  of  his  Synod  '  proves  that  he  strove  to  elevate  the  clergy  of 
his  '  precincts,'  to  inculcate  domestic  purity,  and  to  promote  religion 
of  a  public  and  liturgical  kind  especially  ;  but  there  came  not  from 
him  a  Christian's  proper  reply  to  Naphtali,  in  protests  against  the 
brutalities  of  his  peers  and  his  coadjutors  in  Parliament  and  Council, 
nor  even  in  any  appeals  for  misguided  fanatics  and  inhumanly  treated 
innocents.*  His  was  the  conciliatory  spirit  of  a  disembodied  soul, 
and  the  chilling  purity  of  a  corpse.  Gilbert  Burnet  records  that  he 
had  to  be  prevailed  upon  to  go  to  court  to  expose  the  violence  of  the 
executive  in  planting  religion  which  he  said  he  did  not  approve  of.* 
Yet  he   was  one  of  the  eleven  Scots  bishops  who  met  on   i6th  Sep- 

'  Burnet,  i.  379,  426.  »  Letters,  iii.  365. 

'  Wilson,  Register  of  Synod  of  Duniblane,  q.v. 

'  E.g.  Agnes  Anderson  and  Hadden,  starving  prisoners,  untried,  even  unaccused, 

petition  for  liberty,  and  are  given  to  first  skipper  going  to  Barbadoes  or  Virginia  :  Reg. 
Sec.  Cone,  Acta,  667,  ult.  February  1667.  »  Burnet,  i.  3S2. 


222 


THE  COVENANTERS 


The  '  Accomo- 
dation.' 


Leighlon's 
betrayal  of 
'  The  Cause.' 


tember  and  subscribed  a  subservient  letter  to  Lauderdale,  signifying 
their  concurrence  in  the  new  policy  for  remedying  the  evils  in  the 
Church.'  Moray,  the  intriguer,  and  the  diamond  seal  of  Charles,  also 
exalted  Leighton  into  the  peaceful  heaven  of  resurrected  Sharp.  All 
were  crying  peace,  save  Archbishop  Burnet  and  the  swordsmen. 

Leighton,  however,  was  not  so  much  a  genuine  champion  of 
toleration  as  a  juggler  with  concessions  tending  to  uniformity,  who 
maintained  chimerical  views,  especially  regarding  the  unimportance  of 
distinctive  Church  principles. 

Leighton,  in  a  millennial  vision,  conceived  a  policy  which  was 
designated  '  The  Accommodation.'  It  proposed  that  the  bishop,  or 
'constant  moderator,'  should  preside  in  church  courts,  but  have  no 
negative  vote  ;  a  dissentient  presbyter  on  joining  a  '  precinct '  (his 
name  for  a  presbytery,  or  meeting  of  clergy  under  a  bishop)  might 
acknowledge  the  bishop  under  protest ;  a  candidate  for  ordination 
might  accept  the  bishop  as  the  chairman  of  the  presbyters ;  bishops 
were  to  submit  themselves  to  the  Synod  for  censure  or  approval 
every  third  year."  Of  alternative  schemes  of  conciliation — Kin- 
cardine's, imposing  by  law  mutual  terms  of  concession  ;  and  Tweed- 
dale's,  allowing  field- preachers  to  minister  in  selected  parishes— 
Leighton  favoured  the  former.  Conventicling  was  not  in  harmony 
with  his  veiled  projects.  The  author  of  Naphtali  had  good  founda- 
tion for  his  bitter  accusation  :  '  Mr.  Lighton,  prelat  of  Dumblan, 
under  a  Jesuitical-like  visard  of  pretended  holiness,  humility,  and 
crucifixion  to  the  world,  hath  studied  to  seem  to  creep  upon  the 
o-round,  but  always  up  the  hill  .  .  .  and  .  .  .  none  of  them  all  hath 
with  a  Kiss  so  betrayed  the  Cause,  and  smiten  Religion  under  the 
fifth  rib,  and  been  such  an  offence  to  the  godly.' ^  Leighton  was  no 
more  clever  than  other  schemers  who  had  tried  to  busk  the  presbyter 
so  as  to  hide  the  horns  of  Antichrist.  It  proved  the  shrewdness  of 
the  Covenanters  that  they  were  able  to  detect  what  Burnet,  Leighton's 
confidant,   divulged    regarding   these    concessions:    'He   [Leighton] 


1  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  59. 
3  Naphtali,  301. 


'■'  Burnet,  i.  497  ;   Butler,  Life  of  Leighton,  403,  422. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       223 

thought  it  would  be  easy  afterwards  to  recover  what  seemed  necessary 
to  be  yielded  at  present' ' 

The  strain  of  the  times  was  too  much  for  the  ill-nourished  mind  James 
of  James  Mitchell,  'a  stickit  minister,'  then  in  his  prime.  A  poor '. ^Jl^ Jj  ~ 
student  from  the  Lothians,  he  graduated  at  Edinburgh  ;  and  doubt-  minister.' 
less  the  spare  diet  of  a  private  tutor  and  chaplain  made  him  a  'lean, 
hollow-cheeked  man  of  a  truculent  countenance.'-  Robert  Blair, 
minister  of  Edinburgh,  confidently  recommended  this  'honest  young 
man,'  in  1 661,  as  fit  to  be  a  teacher  or  precentor.^  He  subscribed 
both  Covenants  when  demanded  by  Principal  Leighton,  but,  unlike 
the  Principal,  kept  them.  Enemies  accused  him  of  dealings  with  the 
bestial  wizard,  Weir.  With  Alexander  Henderson  he  held  that  the 
bishops  were  the  makers  of  the  nation's  woes.  Believing  Sharp  to 
be  the  instigator  of  all  the  sufferings  of  the  time,  he  imagined  he  had 
a  call  to  remove  him."*  He  joined  the  insurgents,  and  was  sent  to 
Edinburgh  to  interview  Stirling,  the  author  of  Naphtali,  and  Fergus- 
son  of  Caitloch.  Thereafter  he  skulked  about,  under  the  name  of 
James  Small,  armed  with  two  loaded  Scots  pistols.''  Sharp's  mansion 
was  on  the  High  Street  of  Edinburgh,  between  the  Netherbow  and 
Blackfriars  Wynd.  On  Saturday  afternoon,  iith  July,  Mitchell, 
lurking  on  the  north  side  of  the  High  Street,  saw  Sharp,  followed  by 
Honyman,  Bishop  of  Orkney,  entering  the  Primate's  coach.  Mitchell  Mitchell  shoots 
fired  through  the  window,  but,  being  'ane  ill  gunner,'  missed  Sharp,  mh^uTy  1668. 
and  shattered  Honyman's  wrist  resting  on  the  door  of  the  carriage. 
Clearing  a  way  with  the  second  pistol,  Mitchell  dived  down  the 
Wynd,  up  Cowgate,  into  Fergusson's  house  in  Stevenlaw's  Close, 
where  he  removed  his  disguise  before  descending  to  the  street  to 
join  in  the  hue  and  cry,  from  which  he  .sought  retirement,  it  is  said, 
in  the  very  Tolbooth.  The  cry  'A  man  killed,'  was  soon  hushed 
by  the  report,  '  'Twas  only  a  bishop.'  Mitchell  was  not  suspected, 
and   escaped.      Sharp,    however,   got  a  glimpse  of  that    mummified 

'  Hist.,  i.  499.  "-  Ravillac  Redivivus,  ii. 

3   Woeiro-^  MSS.,  xxix.  4to,  94.  *  Laing  MSS.,  Papers  left  by  Mitchell,  269. 

*  Laud.  I'ap.,  ii.  116,  •  Others  said  Lord  Oxfnford's  garden  in  Cowgate. 


224  THE  COVENANTERS 

face  beneath  the  odd  periwig,  which  haunted  him  for  years,  till  he 
identified  it  again  at  Robert  Douglas's  funeral  and  had  Mitchell 
apprehended.^ 

Sharp  scared  Sharp  was  scared  out  of  his  wits.     In  a  letter,  dated  23rd  July, 

'  he  makes  wild  statements  about  a  '  hellish  design  for  murdering  the 
King  about  that  tvme,'  and  a  combination  of  Pentland  rebels  and 
city  conventiclers  for  rescuing  the  assassin;  whereas  Mitchell  at  his 
trial  declared  that  no  one  was  privy  to  his  design."  These  whinings 
were  flouted  in  official  circles.  Gilbert  Burnet  politely  visited  Sharp 
to  offer  his  congratulations.  The  Primate,  assuming  a  pious  visage, 
exclaimed  :  '  My  times  are  wholly  in  Thy  hand,  O  thou  God  of  my 
life.'  Burnet  adds  the  cutting  comment :  '  This  was  the  single 
expression  savouring  of  piety  that  ever  fell  from  him  in  all  the 
conversation  that  passed  between  him  and  me.'" 

Governmental         /^g  ^.^^  (q  ]-,g  expected,  the  authorities  could  not  allow  the  outrage 

vengeance.  .  ... 

to  go  unavenged.  All  probable  sympathisers  with  the  cnmmal  were 
haled  in  for  examination  ;  flying  squadrons  searched  the  wild  west  for 
phantom  rebels  ;  and  former  victims  of  the  High  Commission  were 
more  harshly  treated.  For  giving  unsatisfactory  answers  regarding 
her  knowledge  of  certain  suspects,  Anna  Kerr,  relict  of  James  Duncan, 
a  minister,  kept  in  prison  with  her  two  children  for  months,  and 
sentenced  to  the  plantations,  was  only  saved  from  torture  by  Rothes 
saying  that  '  it  was  not  proper  for  gentlewomen  to  wear  boots.' 
Margaret  Dury,  relict  of  James  Kello,  a  city  merchant  in  Edinburgh, 
who  gave  Welsh  an  asylum,  was  sentenced  to  banishment,  as  well  as 
to  pay  a  fine  of  5000  merks,  and  was  kept  in  prison  for  months.* 
Many  churches  were  vacant.  Disorder  had  to  be  cured,  for 
Lauderdale  had  sworn— 

'  I  '11  conform  the  Church  and  every  man, 
By  placing  calves  at  Bethell  and  at  Dan.'' 


•  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  109  ;  Hist.  Notices,  90  ;  Aild.  MSS.,  23245,  fol.  14,  15  :  Row,  Bfair,  518  ; 
Scott,  Fasti,  i.  348,  gives  February  1674  as  date  of  Douglas's  death. 

-  Laing  MSS.,  Papers  left  by  Mitchell  ;  Just.  Rec,  ii.  307.  -  Hiit.,  i.  502. 

■*  Wodrow,  ii.  118;  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  116-30,  July  1668. 
^  'The  New  Polirie ' :  Laing  MSS.,  89,  fol.  142. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       225 

The  King  invited  Sharp  to  London,  to  win  over  that  pliable 
courtier  to  the  policy  of  toleration  ;  and  Sharp  returned  to  Scotland 
in  November,  openly  to  promote  what  Burnet  and  he  privately 
detested.'  His  vexed  soul  found  vent  in  diatribes  against  the 
disaffected,  especially  those  he  styled  '  she-zealots  '  and  '  Satanesses.' 

At  this  juncture  there  came  into  prominence  a  brilliant  young  man.  Advent  of 
Gilbert  Burnet,  minister  of  Salton,  a  social  pusher,  able  to  worm  out    '  "    "™^ ' 
the  confidences  of  public  men,  who  considered  himself  as  important 
a  factor  in  the  Church  as  Turner  imagined  himself  to  be  the  Bayard 
of  the  Army.- 

Burnet,  having  picked  the  brains  of  Leighton,  Sharp,  George 
Hutcheson,  the  Hamiltons,  and  the  leading  Whigs,  wrote  to 
Tweeddale  recommending  the  settlement  of  moderate  Presbyterians 
in  the  vacant  charges.  Thereupon  Tweeddale  prevailed  on  some 
conciliatory  ministers— Robert  Douglas,  Stirling,  and  others — to  write 
to  him  in  a  similar  strain.  The  communications  were  passed  on  to 
the  King,  who  dispatched  through  Tweeddale  an  order  to  the  Privy 
Council  (7th  June)  authorising  a  conditional  Indulgence."  The 
Indulgence  provided  for  parish  ministers  resuming  duty  in  their  a  conditional 
charges  when  vacant,  in  other  parishes  when  presented  to  them  by  ^^^^^'^^  '^' 
patrons,  in  consideration  of  being  orderly,  receiving  collation,  attend- 
ing ecclesiastical  courts,  and  receiving  full  emoluments ;  refusers  of 
collation  were  allowed  the  use  of  manses  and  glebes  ;  all  were  to 
attend  the  Presbyterian  courts,  and  to  restrict  their  services  to  their 
own  parishes.  Other  orderly  outed  ministers  were  to  be  paid  four 
hundred  merks  annually  out  of  vacant  parishes.  Conventicles  were  to 
be  suppressed.''  This  establishment  of  modified  Presbyterianism  was 
the  public  rebuke  of  prelatic  incompetence,  and  Sharp  was  warned 
that,  if  the  clergy  and  Church  were  not  reformed,  the  King  would 
turn    disciplinarian    himself.''       When     Sharp    refused    to    recognise 

'  Burnet,  //is/.,  i.  502  ;  Laud  MS S.,  23130,  fol.  42  ;  23 131,  fol.  26. 

'^  Clarke  and  Foxcroft,  A  Life  of  Bishop  Burnet  (Cambridge,  1907),  q.v. 

^  Burnet,  Hist.,  i.  496,  507  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  130,  131  i  Row,  Blair,  524,  525. 

''  Brown,  History  of  the  Indulgence  :  in  Faithful  Witness  Bearing,  135. 

'  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  196. 

VOL.   II.  2  F 


226  THE  COVENANTERS 

the    reponing   of  an    indulged    minister,    Tweeddale    reminded    him 
that   censures   were   no    longer    canonical,    but    were    now    Parlia- 
mentary.' 
Indulged  Of  the  forty-three  ministers  reinstated  in  parish  pulpits — a  few  being 

cerg)'.  those  from  which  they  were  ejected  by  the  Council  during  1669-70 — 

some  were  conspicuous  pastors,  such  as  Robert  Douglas,  Edinburgh, 
indulged  in  Pencaitland  ;  George  Hutcheson,  the  well-known  com- 
mentator, Tolbooth,  Edinburgh,  sent  to  Irvine;  William  Vilant, 
Ferry-Port-on-Craig,  transferred  to  Cambusnethan."'' 

On  3rd  August,  when  twelve  of  these  indulged  preachers — '  The 
Twelve  Apostles  of  the  Council,'  or  '  Council  Curates,'  as  they  were 
nicknamed — compeared  before  the  Council  to  get  their  licences,  '  it 
was  a  piece  of  pageantry  to  see  them  make  their  leg  in  receiving  it.' ' 
Hutcheson,  in  name  of  the  brethren,  thanked  the  King  and  Council ; 
and,  after  asserting  that  the  preacher's  warrant  came  from  Christ,  said 
they  would  submit  themselves  to  lawful  authority  in  its  exercise,  and 
prayed  for  a  blessing  on  the  King,  who  had  shown  '  singular  modera- 
Opposition  of  tion.'  The  irreconcilables,  at  home  and  abroad,  vilified  the  Indulgence 
as  a  bare-faced  Erastian  breach  of  the  Covenant,  and  adjured  the 
people  in  red-hot  language  not  to  hear  the  intruded  hirelings,  and 
disguised  prelatists,  or  any  without  'a  cleanly  call.'  The  field- 
preachers,  in  apocalyptic  ecstasy,  summoned  the  conventiclers  as 
'  angels  of  Michael '  to  a  pitched  battle  with  the  Dragon,  till  Christ 
on  His  white  horse  should  conquer  the  land.''  While  the  Crown 
was  thus  endeavouring  to  mollify  the  people  by  unlocking  the  prison 
doors  for  those  long-incarcerated  knights,  Cunningham,  Mure, 
Maxwell,  Stuart,  and  Chiesley,  only  a  few  parishioners,  or,  more 
probably,  independent  burglars,  in  some  places  were  still  molesting 
the  curates  and  getting  heavy  fines  imposed  on  the  parishes.     The 

'  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  199. 

-  He  wrote  a  review  of  Brown's  History  of  the  Indulgence,  and  became  Principal  of  the 
New  College,  Si.  Andrews.  A  Review  and  Examination,  etc  ,  1681.  Brown's  History  . .  .  and 
Vindication  gives  names  of  indulged—  '  By  a  Presbyterian.  Printed  in  the  year  MDl..KXVin.' 
The  preface  is  by  MacWard. 

-  Kincardine  to  Lauderdale,  3rd  August  1669  :  Lnud.  Pap.,  ii.  192. 
*  Wodrow,  ii.  154  note. 


irreconcilables. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       227 

cases  of  Balmaclellan  and  Urr  only  implicate  six  men  in  women's 
clothes.' 

While  to  the  Presbyterian  the  Indulgence  was  a  licence  to  preach  a  new  western 

_,  ,        .  ,  ,»-.        .  1  •  1         Ti      1      ■   ..    '-^  Remonstrance. 

a  Gospel  without  a  Testimony  to  the  times,  to  the  rrelatist  it  was 
an  illegal  imposition  nullifying  the  statutes  establishing  Episcopacy. 
Sharp,  with  the  aid  of  Rothes,  got  behind  the  provisions  of  the 
Indulgence  by  keeping  the  indulged  out  of  his  diocese.  Burnet 
took  the  bolder  step  of  associating  with  his  clergy  in  framing  a 
Remonstrance,  passed  at  the  Synod,  held  in  Glasgow  in  October, 
resenting  this  invasion  of  their  rights,  and  blaming  councillors  for 
winking  at  dissent,  and  doing  nothing  to  foster  uniformity.'  The 
Remonstrance  was  framed  by  Arthur  Ross,  afterwards  Bishop  of 
Argyle,  Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  and  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews.^  A 
smuggled  copy  reached  Lauderdale.  He  detected  treason.  Soon 
the  appellants  were  cited  to  the  Council,  the  Synod  books  examined, 
the  Remonstrance  suppressed,  and  Burnet  informed  of  his  confine- 
ment in  Glasgow  during  the  approaching  sitting  of  Parliament.* 
When  Charles  saw  the  document  he  exclaimed  :  '  This  damned  paper 
shewes  Bishops  and  Episcopall  people  are  as  bad  in  this  chapter 
as  the  most  arrant  Presbyterian  or  Remonstrator.'^ 

Lauderdale  had  the  iron  hand  that  was  needed.  As  Com-  Character  of 
mtssioner  to  Parliament,  indicted  for  19th  October  1669,  after  a 
royal  progress,  he  arrived  at  Holy  rood.  He  was  no  longer  the 
noble  Maitland  of  the  Golden  Age  of  Presbytery.  If  Mackenzie 
and  others  are  credible  authorities,  Lauderdale  was  now  a  gross, 
loose,  unbearable  dictator,  who  bullied  Parliament-men,  terrorised 
Episcopal  admirers,  and  disgusted  Presbyterians  by  his  '  bawdy 
discourses  and  passionate  oaths.'  **  Lord  Ailesbury's  sketch  of  him 
depicts  a  grotesque,  vulgar,  fawning  worldling.'' 

Lauderdale  in  his  greed  secured  for  himself  seven  salaries,  gifts, 

'  Wodrow,  ii.  145,  146.     Row,  minister  of  Balmaclellan,  was  again  molested  in  Stoneykirk. 
He  became  a  Papist  :  ibid.,  zyi.     The  Whigs  knew  their  pastors. 
-'  Laud.  Pap.,  II.  xvi.  137  ;  App.  Ixiv.-lxvii. 

^  Burnet,  i.  510.     Ross  was  ejected  in  1688.  '  Mackenzie,  Memoirs,  157,  158. 

^  Moray  to  Lauderdale,  6th  October  i66g:  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  139,  166. 
•■  Memoirs,  182.  '  Memoirs,  i.  14,  i8  (Roxburgh  Club,  1890). 


228 


THE  COVENANTERS 


The  new 
Royal  Pope. 


imposts,  minerals,  shipwrecks,  gold  in  Jamaica,  and  other  grants ; 
in  his  ambition  he  aimed  at  being  great  in  the  councils  of  England, 
by  his  becoming  master  of  Scotland  and  indispensable  to  the  King. 
Lauderdale  informed  Charles  that  the  Estates  began  business  'after 
prayers  by  the  Bishop  of  Dunblane  [Leighton]  for  I  would  not  have 
the  Presbiterian  trick  of  bringing  in  ministers  to  tell  God  Almighty 
news  from  the  debates.'  The  first  important  bill  passed  was  the 
Supremacy  Act.'  Its  significance  is  indicated  by  its  terms  :  '  His 
Maiestie  and  his  successours  may  settle,  enact,  and  emit  such  con- 
stitutions, acts,  and  orders,  concerning  all  ecclesiastical  meetings  and 
maters  to  be  proposed  and  determined  therein.'  Never  had  a  Pope 
such  power.  The  Covenanters  said  the  Act  placed  Charles  as  a  Pope 
on  Christ's  throne.^  It  was  suspected  that  Lauderdale,  having  an 
inkling  of  the  royal  leanings  to  popery,  made  a  change  in  the  national 
faith  easier.  The  aristocracy  hailed  the  Act  as  a  relief  from  prelatic 
arrogance.  Upon  the  introduction  of  the  Supremacy  Act  Sharp  in 
private  reviled  it,  as  savouring  of  the  method  of  King  Henry  viii., 
and  tried  to  blunt  its  sting  by  adding  the  words  'as  settled  by  law,'  in 
reference  to  the  Church  ;  but  when  the  debate  came  on  he  made  his 
customary  somersault  and  rated  Bishop  Ross  for  distrusting  his 
Majesty."  A  militia  bill  was  also  passed.  Lauderdale  then  informed 
the  King  that  he  was  sovereign  of  the  Church,  with  twenty  thousand 
armed  men  at  his  back,  a  power  he  had  not  in  England.'  The  King's 
gracious  reply  contained  a  command  to  Lauderdale  to  cause  the 
Deposition  of    hierarchy  to  depose  remonstrating  Burnet,  '  as  unfit  to  govern   that 

Archbishop  r     ■  -<  i  irT-"!-  r  11  •  i-iAi 

Alexander       sea  [jzc]  any  longer.  "     Truly  it  was  a  sea  oi  troubles  m  which  Arch- 
Bumet.  bishop  Alexander  Burnet  foundered.      Lauderdale  gave  the  bishops  a 

dinner,  and  introduced  the  instruction  as  '\\.s piece  de  rc'sista^ice.  Sharp 
was  intractable,  till  his  host  silenced  the  primate  by  asserting  that 
ministerial  office  was  '  not  jure  divino,  but  depended  solely  on  the 
supreme 


Magistrate.''' 


Kneeling  before  this   Grand  Vizier,   Burnet 


•  1 6th  November,  Act  2  :  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  ii.  554.  -  Burnet,  i.  513. 

•"  Mackenzie,  Memoirs,  159  ;  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  151  :  Lauderdale  to  Moray,  2nd  November. 

*  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  163.  "  Ibid.,  ii.  166.  "  /bid.,  ii.  171. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON   AND  LAUDERDALE       229 

heard  his  doom:  'It's  the  King's  will  and  pleasure  that  ye  be  no 
more  Archbishop  of  Glasgow.'  The  unfrocked  bureaucrat  complais- 
antly  departed  to  express  his  grief,  that  he  '  hath  not  been  so  accept- 
able as  I  could  have  wished.'' 

Leighton,   with  the  tongue  of  an  archangel,    preached   on   pure  Bishop 
religion,  and,  with  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent,  refrained  from  uttering  a    "^ 
manly  protest  against  the  incubus  crushing  religion  and  its  devotees." 
Certainly  'one  whose  soul  was  like  a  star  and  dwelt  apart '  could  scarcely 
feel  the  crushing  deadweight.     During  the  same  Parliament  many  land- 
lords obtained  liberty  to  establish  fairs — a  simple  method  of  exacting 
toll;  and  Lieutenant-General  Drummond  was  ratified  in  a  grant  of  the 
lands  of  Inchaffray  Abbey  for   proving    himself    'the    terror   of  hi's 
Majesty's  enemies.'  ^    The  dethronement  of  Sharp  was  daily  expected, 
and  Leighton  was  marked  out  to  succeed  Burnet.     Leighton  pleaded 
excuses — disease,  weariness,  schism,  the  'little  or  no  good'  bishops 
had  done.*     But  the  head  of  Leighton's  church  sent  for  him  to  be 
'  resurrected  '  and  sent  back  to  try  and  mollify  the  westland  Whigs. 
King  and  courtier  discussed  the  Accommodation  which  was  satisfac- 
tory to  Charles.     Leighton  was  appointed  Archbishop  of  Glasgow  in 
April  1670,  but  did  not  resign  Dunblane  till  after  October  1672,  thus 
administering  the  affairs    of  both    sees,   with    a    nominal    salary  for 
Glasgow  which  allowed  the  Crown  to  peculate  the  teinds.     With  the 
view  of  conciliating  the  opponents  of  Episcopacy,  Leighton  in  the 
autumn  selected  six  ministers  to  perambulate  the  west  and  recommend 
the   Accommodation.      These    were    Gilbert    Burnet,   James    Nairn,  The  Bishop's 
minister  at  Holyrood,  a  fine  preacher,  Laurence  Charteris,  Yester,  a '"'""''^"^^ '^  ^' 
refined  scholar,  afterwards  Professor  of  Divinity  in  Edinburgh,  James 
Aird,    minister  at   Torryburn,   nicknamed   '  Bishop    Leighton's    ape,' 
Patrick    Cooke,    minister    at    Prestonpans,   and    Walter     Paterson, 
minister  at  Bolton.      In  their  debates  nothing  surprised  them  so  much 
as  the  aptitude  of  the   peasantry  in   meeting  their  arguments  with 

'  Lauti.  Pap.,  ii.  175.  '^  Butler,  Leighton,  420,  421. 

3  Act.  Pari.  Scot,  vii.  618.  *  Lnuti.  P,ip.,  ii.  iSo. 


230 


THE  COVENANTERS 


The  Parlia- 
ment of  July 
1670. 


Holyrood 
conference. 


Act  against 
Conventicles. 


quotations  from  Scripture.'  The  field-preachers  followed  them  and 
nullified  the  work  of  '  Leighton's  Evangelists.' 

Parliament  again  met  on  22nd  July,  and  relentless  Lauderdale 
reappeared  as  Commissioner.  Sharp,  Leighton,  and  other  four 
bishops  attended.-  A  new  Act  applicable  to  certain  untried  prisoners 
who  would  not  divulge  information  was  required,  and  was  the  second 
passed.  It  authorised  fining  and  sending  to  prison  or  to  banishment 
refusers  to  depone,  and  associates  with  suspects  or  rebels.  It  was  a 
bad  beginning  for  Leighton,  who  had  not  yet  lifted  his  visor.' 

In  furtherance  of  the  desire  of  Charles  for  concord,  Lauderdale 
summoned  to  Holyrood  on  9th  August  six  ministers,  supposed  to 
favour  modified  Episcopacy,  to  meet  and  confer  with  Sharp, 
Leighton,  Rothes,  Tweeddale,  and  Kincardine.  The  Whigs  went 
into  the  conference  with  halters  round  their  necks.  Sharp  kept 
away.  Leighton  waxed  eloquent  over  soul-ruining  schism  and  the 
need  of  compromise.  Hutcheson,  for  his  party  (Wedderburn, 
Ramsay,  Baird,  Gemmel,  Burnet,  and  himself),  warily  asked  for  the 
proposals  in  writing  and  leisure  to  consider  them,  the  discussion  of 
them  being  illegal  as  yet.'  Parliament  sat  on  making  most  obnoxious 
statutes,  which  Leighton,  who  kept  away,  afterwards  stigmatised  as 
inhuman.  The  fourth  statute,  '  Act  against  invading  of  ministers,' 
sent  offenders  to  the  gallows  and  indemnified  apprehenders  who 
slew  resisting  culprits."'  The  fifth  statute  was  the  notorious  '  Act 
against  Conventicles.'  It  imposed  fine,  imprisonment,  or  banish- 
ment on  unlicensed  preachers  who  prayed  outside  their  own  families  ; 
fine  or  imprisonment  sine  die  upon  hearers  of  unlicensed  preachers ; 
fine  upon  master  or  mistress  in  whose  house  a  conventicle  was  held, 
and.  if  held  in  a  burgh,  fine  upon  the  magistrates.  Unlicensed 
ministers  or  field-preachers,  convening  the  lieges  for  religious 
services  in  conventicles  (or  houses  which  could  not  contain  the 
worshippers    assembled)    were    liable    to    death    and    confiscation.* 


'  Burnet,  i.  524  ;  Row,  Blair,  468. 
'  Ibid.,  7  ;  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  188. 
»  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  viii.  8. 


"  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  viii.  3. 

•*  Burnet,  i.  520  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  178. 

"  Ibid.,  9  :   I  yCa.  August  1670. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       231 

Seizers  of  the  field-preachers  were  to  receive  five  hundred  merks,  and 
be  indemnified  should  they  slay  their  prey  in  the  capture.  Lauderdale 
boastfully  wrote  to  Moray  that  Parliament  had  passed   a  '  Clanking  New 

iiTi--''fUlj'  Clanking 

Act '  against  conventicles,  which  had  roused  the  Puritanic  spirit  ot  bold  Acts'  in  1670. 
Cassillis,  who  alone  voted  'no,'  'according  to  the  laudable  custom  of 
his  fathers.''  The  more  politic  King  was  displeased  with  the  brutal 
legislation,  and  told  Moray  :  '  Bloody  laws  did  no  good :  he  would 
never  have  passed  it  had  he  known  beforehand.'-  The  '  Act  against 
disorderly  baptisms  '  reached  with  heavy  fines  those  who  employed 
unlicensed  preachers.^  The  eighth  statute,  'Act  against  separation 
and  withdrawing  from  the  publict  meetings  for  Divyne  Worship,'  was 
artfully  drawn  only  to  apply  to  '  all  his  good  subjects  of  the  Reformed 
Religion  ' — Papists  were  left  out — and  every  absentee  from  church  for 
three  Sabbaths,  without  a  good  reason,  was  to  be  fined.  Magistrates 
were  given  the  fines  of  those  under  the  rank  of  heritor  ;  heritors  who 
did  not  attend  church  and  refused  to  sign  the  bond  repudiating  armed 
risings  were  to  have  their  estates  forfeited  to  the  Crown.* 

The  '  moderate  '  Whig  ministers  often  met  to  discuss  the  proposal  Attempts  at 

1   •  /-^  !->         1  •  11  1  compromise. 

of  Lauderdale,  which  amounted  to  this — Can  Presbyterians,  allowed 
to  have  private  opinions  regarding  Church  government,  meet  in 
Church  courts,  presided  over  by  a  king-appointed  bishop,  deprived 
of  his  veto,  and  to  whom  no  canonical  oath  of  obedience  has  been 
taken.-*  The  answer  was  'no.'  Recent  legislation  had  nothing  to 
do  with  this  determination.''  It  is  clear  that  such  an  amalgamation 
was  not  in  harmony  with  the  genius  of  Presbytery,  which  opposed 
any  moderatorship  implying  permanent  ascendency  of  a  pastor  over 
his  brethren.  Tweeddale,  anxious  for  a  modus  vivendi,  went  to  the 
west  to  consult  the  indulged  and  to  try  and  arrive  at  some  'regulation 
of  episcopacy  to  a  primitive  model  and  the  allowance  of  presbytery ' ; 
but  he  had  to  confess  failure  to  Lauderdale,  since  '  some  of  that  gang 
will  not  subscrive  to  the  Lord's  Prayer  if  asked  ' ;  and  the  diocese  of 

'  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  200.  -  Burnet,  i.  523. 

'  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  viii.  10,  Act  6.  *  Ibid.,  viii.  1 1. 

'■•  Wodrow,  ii.  178,  179. 


232  THE  COVENANTERS 

Glasgow  was  ruined  by  scandalous  curates  and  cruel  soldiery.^     The 
Moderates  accused  Leighton  of  playing  fast  and    loose    with    them 
in  secret  communications  which    leaked  out,  and  which  the    bishop 
Conference  at    explained  away."     Leighton  met  in  conference  with  twenty-six  Presby- 
Decembe/       terian  ministers  in  Paisley  on   14th   December  1670,  of  whom  some 
1670.  were  unfavourable  to  the   Indulgence.     The  politic  prelate  began  by 

asking,  '  Who  shall  begin  our  conference  with  prayer? '  '  Who  should 
pray  here  but  the  minister  of  Paisley  ?'  replied  Ramsay,  the  indulged 
pastor,  noted  for  his  sweet  temper.^  Leighton  pleaded  for  peace — of 
course,  peace  plus  his  Episcopacy,  patronage,  et  cetera — '  pleaded  for 
it  in  a  high  and  positive  strain,'  wrote  Burnet,  who  was  present.  The 
customary  wrangle  over  scriptural  bishops  and  presbyters  ensued. 
Jamison,  a  learned  pastor  and  Protester,  pulverised  episkopos,  and 
drove  Leighton  into  a  corner,  out  of  which  Professor  Burnet  boasted 
he  retrieved  his  ordinary.  The  battery  of  words  was  too  much  for 
the  recluse,  Leighton.  His  nose  bled.  He  ran  out,  wringing  his 
hands  and  crying,  'I  see  there  will  be  no  accommodation.''  The 
meeting  dissolved  without  arriving  at  a  compromise. 
Leighton's  At  a  Subsequent  meeting  held  at  Kilmarnock  the  indulged  framed 

a  reply  to  the  Government.  They  came  to  Holy  rood  on  12  th  January 
and  met  Rothes,  Hamilton,  Tweeddale,  Leighton,  and  other  coun- 
cillors, who  again  offered  the  '  Treaty  of  Accommodation  '  to  the 
deputation.  Hutcheson,  for  his  party,  laconically  replied:  'We  are 
not  free  in  conscience  to  close  with  the  propositions  made  by  the 
Bishop  of  Dunblane  as  satisfactory.'''  They  declined  to  give  their 
reasons.  In  their  perilous  circumstances  they  acted  wisely.  MacWard, 
however,  recorded  the  reasons  to  this  effect,  that  the  bishop  of  the 
compromise  suppressed  the  presbyter  and  ruling  elder,  and  submitted 
to  the  wrongous  supremacy  of  the  civil  ruler.*     Theirs  was  the  con- 

'  Tweeddale  to  Lauderdale,  27lh  September  1670  :  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  205,  207.  The  volume 
of  Tweeddale- Lauderdale  correspondence,  which  was  exhibited  in  the  Glasgow  Exhibition 
1888,  was  not  available  for  consultation. 

-'  Wodrow,  ii.  179.  ^  Ana/ecta,  iii.  66. 

■•  Wodrow,  ii.  i8o  ;  Laud.  Pap.,  iii.  App.  233,  234  :  Law  to  Lady  Cardross,  28th  December 
1670. 

''  Butler,  Leighton,  444  el  seq.        "  Case  of  the  Accommodation,  etc.,  12,  14,  19  (edit.  1671}. 


Accommod,i 
tion  discarded 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       233 

stitutional  standpoint  established  since  Melville's  day.  Sharp  was 
jubilant  over  the  disaster  which  followed  Leighton's  impracticable 
concessions  to  '  beasts,'  whom  he  considered  unappeasable  until  they 
got  the  mastery.^  He  also  blamed  Leighton  for  ruining  the  Church.^ 
Leighton  thus  found  himself  in  a  most  uncomfortable  predicament, 
railed  on  by  Sharp  and  his  '  high '  party  as  a  traitor  to  Episcopacy, 
and  banned  by  the  Covenanters  as  a  masked  emissary  of  Rome. 

Out  of  common  prayer- meetings  at  Corsock,  Caitloch,  and  other  Development 
asylums  of  homeless  ministers,  conventicles  had  developed  into  potent  °^.[j 
factors  in  the  national  life,  which  the  Government,  on  reckoning  with, 
found  were  neither  to  be  ignored  nor  suppressed.  Offences  at  common 
law  had  become  so  multiplied  that  any  drunken  trooper  or  officious 
informer  was  at  liberty  to  apprehend  any  person  on  chance  of  dis- 
covering a  rebel.  Only  a  people  debased  by  slavery  could  submit  to 
such  oppression  without  revolting.  The  Hillmen  hit  the  happy 
medium  of  maintaining  the  conviction,  expressed  by  Blackadder, 
'that  both  ministers  and  people  who  used  such  meetings  were  peace- 
able, not  set  on  revenge,  but  only  endeavouring  to  keep  up  the  free 
preaching  of  the  Gospel  in  purity  and  power,  in  as  harmless  and 
inoffensive  a  way  as  possible.'^  The  persecuted  looked  upon  a 
conventicle  much  as  the  Israelites  viewed  the  Tabernacle  and  Ark 
in  the  wilderness,  as  the  Presence  of  God.  After  the  publication 
of  the  policy  of  reconciliation,  conventicles  became  more  frequent, 
of  greater  dimensions,  and  more  influential,  because  the  gentry  also 
ventured  to  countenance  them.  In  May  1668,  Michael  Bruce  held 
a  conventicle  at  Anstruther,  under  the  very  nose  of  Sharp,  who 
demanded  a  commission  to  examine  this  '  gangrene  '  of  implacable 
persons,  as  he  styled  their  'mad  conventicling  humour.'  He  now 
prophesied  that  '  their  confident  pranks  will  have  some  strange 
eruption.'  John  Blackadder  left  graphic  accounts  of  his  wanderings, 
conventicles,  communions,  baptisms  in  the  west  and  around  Fife, 
which,  for  their  exquisite  literaiy  grace  and  style,  are  still  well  worth 

'  Sharp  to  Lauderdale,  2nd  Februaiy  1671  :  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  213. 

-  Burnet,  i.  606.  *  Wodrow,  ii.  157  note. 

VOL.   11.  2  G 


THE  COVENANTERS 


lilackadilei'a 
remiaisceiices 
ot  conven- 
ticling. 


perusing.'  He  said,  'people  seemed  to  smell  him  out  in  spite  of 
all  his  caution.'  In  Dundonald  Wood  the  rapturous  multitudes  sat 
on  trees,  which  broke  with  their  weight.  At  Hill  of  Beath,  on  i8th 
June  1670,  he  was  guarded  by  Barscob  and  a  troop  of  Galloway 
men.  A  militia  officer  disturbed  the  peaceful  meeting".  Instantly 
Barscob  and  a  comrade  presented  pistols.  Blackadder,  fearing 
bloodshed,  stopped  the  service,  rushed  into  the  fray,  exclaiming : 
'  I  charge  and  obtest  you  not  to  meddle  with  him  or  do  him  any 
hurt  .  .  .  we  came  here  to  offer  violence  to  no  man,  but  to  preach 
the  gospel  of  peace.'"  The  ofificer  was  let  go.  Yet  one  of  the 
results  of  such  gatherings  was  the  '  clanking  Act  against  conventicles.' 
Some  of  the  Hill  of  Beath  conventiclers  were  seized,  tried,  and 
sentenced  to  the  plantations  of  Virginia.^  Illicit  meetings  were  so 
popular  that  the  authorities  tried  to  nullify  their  influence  by  putting 
in  force  every  repressive  statute ;  and  some  zealots,  in  retaliation, 
exhibited  their  irritation  by  committing  outrages  in  manses. 
Burnet's  account  of  these  enormities  is  exaggerated,  as  is  proved 
by  the  records  of  the  Justiciary  Court.*  What  Burnet  refers  to  is 
the  execution  of  four  men — Smith,  Robertson,  Montgomerie,  and 
Armour — who  were  tried  for  rebellion  at  Pentland,  robbing  the 
manses  at  Auchinleck,  Cambuslang,  and  Closeburn,  and  wounding 
with  sword  and  pistol  Ramsay,  minister  of  Auchinleck,  whom  they 
made  swear  never  to  preach  there  again.  Mr.  Andrew  Lang  thinks 
that  this  violence  is  ignored  by  Covenanting  writers ;  but  neither  of 
these  historians  mentions  that  the  Lord  Commissioners  of  Justiciary 
forbade  the  filling  of  prisons  with  suspects,  whom  no  one  appeared 
to  charge,  and  who  were  left  in  the  jails  to  starve.  The  records 
prove   that    Covenanting   districts  were   characteristically   free   from 


'  Memoirs,  passim.  ^  Ibid.^  1.(6,  147.  ^  Row,  lllair,  536,  537. 

*  Burnet,  in  the  Preface  to  the  Vindicntion,  makes  tlie  most  of  these  cases  in  charging 
the  Presbyterians  with  cruel  molestation  of  the  conforming  clergy,  but  the  indictment  of  the 
Lord  Advocate  puts  a  different  face  on  the  crimes,  by  designating  the  accused  as  common 
robbers  living  since  Pentland  'in  a  constant  habit  of  oppression  and  robbing  of  his  Majesties 
good  subjects,  and  particularly  the  ministers  of  the  Gospel!'  :  Just.  Rec,  ii.  114.  Such  felons 
could  not  be  genuine  Co\enanters,  any  more  than  they  could  be  pious  Episcopalians  :  Burnet, 
Vindiuition,  Pref.  xix.,  148,  149,  153,  154. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       235 

penal  offences.     Innocent  persons,  some  untried,  lay  in  the  oubliettes,  Conventiciers 
till  they  died  ;  others  long  after  the   orders  of  liberation  had  been  J,i„e. 
issued,  but  kept  back  by  those  interested.' 

The  trial  of  Lovell  of  Cunnoquhie,  which  was  departed  from,  is 
worthy  of  note  in  its  relation  to  Sharp's  murder.^ 

In  the    Records   there  is  no  other  case  like   that   of   Archibald  An  Episcopal 
Beith,  Episcopal  incumbent  in  Kilbride,  Arran,  and  his  servant,  whoijihjune' 
on  trial  were  condemned  to  the  gallows  for  wiling  with  refreshments  "^''^' 
unwary  travellers,  and  murdering  them  for  their  merchandise.^ 

The  studied  good  behaviour  of  the  nonconformists  drove  Lauder-  Gilbert 
dale  into  'the  most  frantic  fits  of  rage  possible,' and  he  declared  to  ingenious 
Gilbert  Burnet  his  wish  that  they  should  openly  rebel,  so  that  he  P'°J"'- 
might  have  the  chance  to  import  Irish  Papists  to  cut  their  throats.* 
Burnet  devised,  and  induced  Lauderdale  to  put  into  practice,  a  most 
ingenious  plan  for  extinguishing  the  combustion,  on  the  principle  that 
fire  confined  in  a  chimney  is  less  dangerous  than  flame  spread  about. 
Laodicean  Lauderdale  in  his  fury  preferred  the  cut-throat  method  ; 
in  his  cooler  mood  of  diplomacy  he  tested  Burnet's  scheme,  which 
provided  for  cantoning  vagabond  preachers  in  couples  in  selected 
parishes,  wherein  full  ministerial  power  was  given  to  them.  This  would 
confine  the  conflagration,  he  reckoned.  Accordingly,  the  Council,  on 
3rd  September,  appointed  one  hundred  and  twenty  ministers  to  charges 
in  various  disaffected  parts:  thirteen  to  parishes  round  Glasgow,  thirty- 
two  round  Irvine,  seventeen  round  Ayr,  eight  round  Kirkcudbright, 
fourteen  round  Hamilton,  twelve  round  Lanark,  four  round  Linlithgow, 
six  in  the  Lothians,  ten  in  Argyleshire,  and  four  were  recommended 
to  patrons."  This  Second  Indulgence  provided  that  the  indulged 
minister  should  get  one-half  of  the  stipend,  and  his  colleague  the 
other  half;  that  pastoral  duty  should  be  confined  to  parishioners; 
that  there  should  be  simultaneous  communion  in  each  diocese ;  that 
preaching  should  be  in  churches  only  ;  that  indulged  ministers  should 

'   Burnet,  i.  604  ;  Lang,  Hist.,  iii.  324  ;  Just.  Rec,  ii.  30,  31,  113,  115  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  187. 

-  Cf.  postea,  253  ;  Just.  Rec,  ii.  58,  63.  ^  /h'lt.,  ii.  85-98,  113,  125,  127. 

*  Nis/.,  i.  605.  *  //ist.  of  Indulgence,  179-81  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  203-10. 


236 


THE  COVFiNANTERS 


The  Second 
Indulgence, 
September 
1672. 


The  English 

Indulgence, 

1672. 


not  leave  their  parishes  without  a  licence  from  the  bishop  ;  that  dues 
be  paid  to,  and  discipline  be  taken  up  by,  Presbyteries  as  before. 
Ministers  outed  since  1661  were  ordered  to  attend  the  parish 
churches  and  be  certified  by  magistrates,  while  disorderly  preachers 
were  to  be  reported  on  and  apprehended.  The  vagabond  ministry, 
with  '  Holy  Fairs,'  private  preaching,  and  conventicling,  was  declared 
criminal.  The  position  of  a  Presbyterian  was  not  to  be  envied  :  he 
was  liable  to  be  thrown  into  prison  and  kept  there  an  indefinite 
time,  charged  with  any  offence  by  any  person,  who  might  depart 
from  the  accusation  ;  fined  or  banished  for  not  attending  church,  for 
sheltering  or  speaking  to  any  rebel,  for  refusing  to  give  satisfactory 
information  regarding  suspects,  for  listening  to  field-preachers,  for 
being  one  of  five  strangers  at  a  prayer-meeting,  for  whispering 
against  or  criticising  the  Government,  for  refusing  to  take  the  oath 
of  loyalty,  for  refusing  to  own  Episcopacy,  for  crossing  the  parish 
boundary  to  hear  the  neighbouring  incumbent.  Preacher  and  lay- 
man alike  were  liable  to  death  for  convening  or  praying  at  any 
outdoor  meeting,  such  as  a  funeral  gathering,  unless  they  had 
licences. 

Charles,  now  practically  thralled  to  Popery,  and  desirous  to  be 
freed  from  Parliamentary  trammels,  by  encouraging  courtiers  who 
favoured  toleration,  became  bold  enough  to  publish  a  Declaration  of 
Indulgence  to  all  English  nonconformists,  15th  March  1672.  Using 
his  nobile  offi.cium,  he  suspended  all  penal  laws  referring  to  matters  of 
religion  and  gave  freedom  to  all  sects.  Very  few  knew  that  the 
King  was  a  Papist.  More  discreditable  was  his  selling  of  his  friend- 
ship and  alliance  to  Louis  xiv.  of  France.^ 

For  helping  the  King  in  his  autocratic  designs  Lauderdale  was 
rewarded  with  a  dukedom,  garter,  place  in  the  Council  of  England, 
perpetual  presidency  of  the  Scots  Council,  and  other  lucrative 
privileges.  He  gratified  another  ambition  by  wedding  Elizabeth, 
Countess  of  Dysart,  daughter  of  the  treacherous  William  Murray, 
the  beautiful,  brilliant  widow  of  Sir  Lionel  Tollemache  of  Helming- 

'   Forneron,  Court  of  Charles  II.,  1-43. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       237 

ham.  This  Delilah  owned  to  having  had  some  influence  with 
Cromwell,  and  was  not  credited  with  many  virtues.  Fascinating, 
extravagant,  rapacious,  sticking  at  nothing  to  gain  her  ends,  this 
'  Queen  of  Love  '  trafficked  in  government  patronage ;  and,  in  pro-  Lauderdale's 
moting  her  parasites  to  places  of  power  wherein  they  could  fleece  the  lov""  ° 
unfortunate  and  pay  toll  to  her,  she  created  ruptures  between  her 
husband  and  his  old  friends.' 

Early  in  summer,  1672,  Lauderdale  and  the  Duchess  came  to 
Edinburgh  and  made  a  great  display.  When  the  third  session  of 
Parliament  assembled  on  12th  June,  she  had  the  audacity  to  order 
chairs  for  herself  and  her  vice-regal  court  to  be  placed  in  the 
legislative  chamber.- 

In  view  of  the  English  Indulgence,  Lauderdale  expected  the  Parliament  in 
Scots  Presbyterians  to  fawn  at  his  feet,  but  found  that  they  despised  "^ '  '" 
and  avoided  him.  Consequently  repressive  legislation  was  renewed. 
The  first  statute  ordained  that  all  militia  officers  should  be  Episco- 
palians who  had  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance.^  An  '  Act  against 
unlawful  ordinations '  made  ordination  by  outed  ministers  punishable 
by  confiscation  and  banishment,  and  declared  marriages  by  them  to 
be  illegal  and  clandestine.  This  made  the  children  of  nonconformists 
illegitimate.*  Act  22  imposed  fines  on  those  whose  infants  were  not 
baptized  within  thirty  days  by  accredited  clergy;  Act  23  ordained  the 
keeping  of  Restoration  Day  with  festivity,  bells,  and  bonfires,  and  a 
thanksgiving  sermon  in  every  parish  church. '  The  day  after  the  pro- 
mulgation of  the  Second  Indulgence,  4th  September,  Parliament  passed 
Act  41  'against  keepers  of  conventicles  and  withdrawers  from  publict 
worship,'  for  other  three  years  ;  amending  the  former  Act,  so  that 
only  four  strangers  might  attend  family  worship,  and  that  no  outed 
minister  could  pray  except  in  a  house  beyond  the  parish  to  which  his 
licence  referred."  Parliament  rose  on  i  ith  September.  It  is  evident 
that  the  legislators  passed  these  Acts  as  precautionary  measures,  in 

'  Burnet,  i.  437.  ^  Mackenzie,  Memoirs,  2ig. 

"'  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  viii.  58.  *■  24lh  July,  Act  20,  ibid.,  71. 

°  Ibid.,  72,  73.  '■  Ibid.,  89. 


238  THE  COVENANTERS 

the  hope  that  the  generous  Indulgence  might  have  a  soothing  influ- 
ence through  time. 

Estimate  of  Leightou  did  uot  return  to  Parliamentary  life  in  order  to  mitigate 

the  rigours  invented  by  his  friends,  preferring  to  counsel  peace  where 
and  while  the  sword  of  Damocles  hung  over  the  heads  of  doomed 
dissenters.  His  Christianity  was  not  heroic.  Had  the  first  Christians 
evidenced  no  higher  faith,  the  Gospel  would  never  have  crossed  the 
Vale  of  Hinnom.  In  his  diocesan  work  in  the  west  he  found,  he 
said,  the  people  so  intractable  that  they  '  would  not  receive  angels  if 
they  committ  ye  horrid  crime  of  going  to  presbyteries  and  synods.' ' 
He  continued  throwing  oil  on  the  troubled  waters  until  he  was  able 
to  report  that,  through  his  complacency,  '  the  west  sea  is  at  present 
pretty  calm.'  He  considered  the  Second  Indulgence  a  forlorn  hope, 
and  recorded  his  belief  that  the  Church  would  never  recover  from 
'  the  fatal  Act  of  Glasgow,  laying  so  great  a  tract  waste  to  make  it 
quiet,  and  then  stocking  again  that  desert  we  had  made  with  a  great 
many  howles  and  satyres.'^  True,  the  moderate  Presbyterians  had 
got  their  Indulgence  out  of  a  mailed  fist.  Those  ministers  convened 
in  Edinburgh  to  consider  the  Indulgence,  24th  September,  were  afraid 
to  express  their  views,  and  parted  after  concurring  that  the  proposal 
was  not  universally  acceptable.  A  concordat  could  not  be  framed  to 
include  a  '  salvo '  sufiicient  to  prevent  concurrence  with  magisterial 
encroachment.  Six  ministers  who  accepted  office  under  the  Second 
Indulgence,  while  resisting  the  right  of  King  and  magistrate  to 
interfere  in  ecclesiastical  affairs,  were  summoned  to  the  Council. 
The  Covenanters  were  again  divided  into  two  contending  parties, 
the  more  dissatisfied  opponents  being  incited  by  their  exiled  brethren 
to  pass  through  the  country  abusing  the  Indulgence.'' 

ciericaUictims  Lauderdale  ordered  the  laws  to  be  put  into  execution.*  Eleven 
landlords  in  Renfrewshire  were  fined  in  ^368,031,  13s.  4d.  Scots.' 
The  outed  clergy  living  in  the  Capital  were  ordered  into  the  country  ; 

'   Leighton  lo  Lauderdale,  isl  December  1671  :  l.aud.  Pap.,  ii.  217. 

'-'  Hamilton  MSS.,  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep..,  xi.,  App.  vi.  149.  ■'  Ibid.,  142. 

^  Lauderdale  to  Rothes,  21st  November  1672,  Hist.  MSS.,  XI.  vi.  143.       "  Wodrow.  ii.  227. 


of  Ihc  law. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       239 

and  the  indulged  who  had  not  entered  into  their  cantonments  were 
cited  for  their  contumacy  and  ordered  to  take  up  their  parochial  duties 
before  ist  June.  The  indulged  who  ignored  the  Restoration  Service 
were  summoned  for  disloyalty,  and  nineteen  were  mulcted  of  half 
their  stipends.  For  refusing  to  take  ministerial  instructions  from  the 
Government,  Blair  of  Galston  was  thrown  into  jail,  where  he  contracted 
a  fatal  malady.^  Other  refractory  ministers  were  denounced  and  pro- 
claimed for  apprehension.  King  Charles,  still  pursuing  his  policy  of 
toleration,  on  31st  May,  wrote  enjoining  the  Council  not  to  press 
refusers  of  the  Indulgence  who  would  promise  to  select  a  vacant 
pulpit  or  to  live  orderly.  At  the  same  time  he  menaced  the  untract- 
able,  and,  in  order  to  stimulate  the  executive,  he  required  them  to 
commission  a  court,  consisting  of  Hamilton,  Linlithgow,  Dumfries, 
Dundonald,  and  the  Lord  President,  to  quell  the  '  incorrigible  rogues ' 
in  Glasgow  diocese." 

The  morose  Leighton  had  to  confess  to  Lauderdale  that  his  under-  Bishops  a 
taking  had  not  succeeded,  and  that  the  bishops  were  a  failure  :  '  for  ' 
us  of  this  order  in  this  kingdom,  I  believe  'twere  little  damage  either 
to  Church  or  State,  possibly  some  advantage  to  both,  if  we  should  all 
retire.'^  Concluding  that  the  national  troubles  were  a  ' querelle 
d' Alman,  or  a  drunken  scuffle  in  the  dark,'  the  invertebrate  pacificator 
confessed  he  longed  for  this  '  crazy  turf  of  earth  that  I  carry,  which 
makes  it  an  uneasy  burden  to  mee,'  to  '  shortly  drop  into  the  common 
heap.'^  Nevertheless  he  continued  to  approve  of  'curbing  that 
froward  party'  and  did  not  object  to  'those  coercions  and  civill 
restraints  .  .  .  found  needful!  to  be  renewed  upon  them.''  A  popular 
clerical  demand  for  a  National  Synod,  which  Leighton  recommended 
to  Lauderdale  on  the  ground  that  it  gave  parties  a  freedom  of  dis- 
cussion, and  that  the  genius  of  the  Church  voiced  itself  in  such 
conventions,  was  opposed  by  Lauderdale,  whose  recollections  of  the 
clerical  petitions  of  1638,  as  he  said,  made  him  fear  evil,  as  a  burned 
child    dreads    the    fire."     At    length,    sick    of   the   unhappy  struggle, 

'  Wodrow,  ii.  217.  '^  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  XI.  vi.  144.  ^  Laud.  Pap.,  ii.  238. 

*  lbid.,\\\.  75,  76.  '  i6tli  June  1674  :  ibui.,  iii.  50.  *  Ibid.,  iii.  54. 


240  THE  COVENANTERS 

Resignation  of  Leighton  resigned  office,  retired  in   December  1674,  and  settled  in 

16*74.  °"'  Sussex.  In  the  dark  days  that  followed  the  murder  of  Sharp,  and 
the  rout  at  Drumclog,  the  King  wrote  inviting  Leighton  to  return  to 
Scotland  to  assist  in  restoring  concord ;  but  the  development  of 
events  created  a  new  situation  in  which  the  proposal  came  to  nought. 
When  on  a  visit  to  London,  Leighton  died  in  the  Bell  Inn,  Warwick 
Lane,  on  25th  June  16S4,  aged  seventy-four  years.  He  was  laid 
beside  his  brother,  Sir  Elisha,  in  the  chancel  of  Horsted  Keynes 
Church.^ 

With  the  light  now  fully  thrown  upon  the  bloody  arena  of  which 
Leighton  was  a  spiritual  overseer,  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  the 
efforts  of  Leighton  for  conciliation,  and  his  policy  of  comprehension, 
were  distasteful  to  honest,  godly  men,  who  rightly  protested  against 
a  legal  Church  having  Charles  for  its  Head,  and  believed  that  the 
Accommodation  was  only  a  sop  thrown  to  Cerberus." 

Leighton  an  With  all  Leighton's  fame  for  piety  and  anxiety  for  concord  among 

contentious  preachers  and  distracted  citizens,  he  was  in  reality  a  more 
inflexible  Prelatist  than  any  other  of  the  bishops,  who,  however,  were 
less  nervous  in  occupying  their  perilous  position.  As  overtly  as  he 
pleaded  that  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel  only  was  necessary  for  salvation 
— the  form  of  religion  being  quite  indifferent — he  as  covertly  worked 
for  the  enforcement  of  the  letter  of  the  inquisitorial  law  against  which 
any  revulsion  of  his  was  indefinite  and  ineffective.  His  saintliness 
was  timorous  and  self-protective,  not  the  complement  of  a  soul, 
manly,  magnanimous,  and  heroic. 

Rottenness  in  The  rottenness  in  high  places  referred  to  by  Moray"  grew  to  such 

a  pitch  that  universal  corruption  burst  out.  In  their  private  letters 
the  aristocrats  undermined  and  betrayed  each  other  like  vulgar  knaves. 
An  Anglo-Scottish  intrigue  to  humiliate  Lauderdale  had  its  inception, 
according  to  Lauderdale,  in  the  ingenious  brain  of  Gilbert  Burnet, 
who  incited  Hamilton  to  disaffection.  Lauderdale  blamed  Hamilton 
for  defection,  and  the  latter  accused  the  former  of  malice.      Hamilton 

'  Burnet,  ii.  63,  427,  428  ;  Butler.  Leighton,  506,  511. 

'■'  Cf.  Burnet,  i.  496-536,  chap.  xiii.  ^  He  died  in  July  1673. 


inflexible 
Prelatist. 


high  places. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       241 

had  asked  and  expected  much  and  got  Httle.  He  opposed  Lauderdale's 
scheme  of  Union,  and  had  been  badly  treated  by  Hatton,  so  that  he 
was  ripe  for  a  rupture.  So  were  others.  The  secular  affairs  of  the 
day  make  a  sordid  story.^  The  Lauderdale  connection  battened  on 
ill-gotten  gains,  Hatton  even  sweating  the  coinage.^ 

Parliament  met  on   12th  November  1673  to  receive  the   King's 
demand  for  the  suppression   of  '  insolent   field-conventicles.' '     The 
Hamilton  party — Rothes,    Tweeddale,    Oueensberry,    Morton,    Rox- 
burgh, Drummond,  Dumfries — met  on  the  nth,  and  arranged  that  it 
should  be  moved  that  the  King's  letter  be  not  answered  until  they 
had  discussed  the  national  grievances.*    This  unexpected  assault  only 
temporarily  disconcerted  Lauderdale,  who  outmanoeuvred  his  oppo-  Attacks  on 
nents  by  introducing  three   bills   discharging  the  unpopular  import  frustrated.^ 
duties  on  salt,  brandy,  and  tobacco.      He  wisely  burked  a  proposal  to 
introduce  a  liturgy.     The  King  informed  the  opposition  that  they  did 
him  no  good  service  who  tried  to  unseat  his  faithful  Commissioner. 
A  similar  attack  upon  him  in  the  English  Commons  in  January  also 
failed.^     Lauderdale  knew  how  to  humour  his  master,  and  thus  wrote 
to   him  :    '  I    am    your   secretarie   for    Scotland,   and    by  that   place 
obliged  to  atend  you,  bot   I   lye  at  your  feet,  do  with  me  what  ye 
please.'"     Hamilton  and  Tweeddale  laid  the  public  grievances  before 
the  King,  and  were    'dismissed  with   fair  words.'     Lauderdale  was 
practically  sole  ruler  in  Scotland.     He  had  Sharp  so  well  in  hand  that 
he  could  afford   to  display  his  own    satanic  brilliancy  in  a   profane 
expression  of  patronage  :   '  My  Lord,  sit  down  here  at  my  right  hand 
untill  I  make  all  your  enemies  your  footstool.' '    Those  special  spiritual 
favours  which    Mackenzie  credits  the   Duchess   of  Lauderdale  with 
promising  to  Welsh  and   other  wandering    preachers  had    practical 
illustration  in  an  '  Act   of  Grace,'  pardoning  past  offences  of  con- 

'  An  Accompt  of  Scotland'' s  Grievances,  By  Reason  of  the  Duke  of  Lauderdales  Ministrie 
(1672),  p.  29. 

-  Burnet,  ii.  24;  Lauderdale  got  in  donations  ^26,900  stg.  ;  Hatton,  /i  5,300,  and  ;^25oo 
out  of  the  Mint  yearly  ;  AthoU  got  ;£i5oo  of  fines,  and  ^^1450  yearly  :  An  Accompt,  29. 

^  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  viii.  208.  ^  Mackenzie,  Memoirs,  256  ;  Burnet,  ii.  38. 

'  Laud.  Pap.,  iii.  21.  "  ist  February  1674  :  ibid.,  26.  '  An  Accompt,  38. 

VOL.  II.  2  H 


242  THE  COVENANTERS 

venticlers,  which  Lauderdale  in  the  King's  name  proclaimed,  in  March 

1674,   before  proceeding   south  to  Court.^     It  created  fresh  hopes, 

multiplied  field-preachers,  and  made  the  multitudinous  conventicles 

more  influential,  the  gentry   now   countenancing   them   close  to  the 

Primate's  palace."     Naturally  Sharp  was  furious  at  the  turn  things 

were  taking.     Compensation  was  at  hand,  where  he  least  expected  it. 

Apprehension  On  Saturday,  7th  February  1674,  James  Mitchell  was  apprehended 

Mitcru         ^y  ^'''  William  Sharp  and  two  servants  of  the  Primate,  and  lodged  in 

February  1674,  the  Tolbooth  of  Edinburgh.      Unsuspected,  he  and  his  wife  kept  a 

little  shop  in  the  Capital  for  the  sale  of  brandy  and  tobacco.     Sharp 

himself  in  passing  noted  the  interested  gaze  of  Mitchell  at  his  door, 

and  caused  his  apprehension.     He  had  also  been  discovered  at  the 

funeral  of  Robert  Douglas.^    He  disclaimed  identity  with  the  assassin. 

He  was  instantly  brought  before  the   Commissioner  and  the   Privy 

Council,  and  a  committee,  consisting  of  Rothes,  Hatton,  and  Primrose, 

was    appointed    to    examine    him.     Sharp    sent    Nicoll    Sommervell, 

brother-in-law  of  Mitchell,  to  visit  the  prisoner  and  assure  him  of  a 

pardon  on  his  confessing  his  crime.*     Mitchell  was  willing  if  he  got 

an  assurance  in   the  King's  name.     Primrose  said,    '  It  would  be  a 

strange  force  of  eloquence  to  persuade  a  man  to  confess   and    be 

hanged.'    Lauderdale  authorised  the  committee  to  give  this  assurance. 

Mitchell's        Rothes    took    him    apart    and    conveyed    the    promise.     Thereupon 

i^^prisonmenf  Mitchell  upon  his  knees  confessed  his  attempt  upon    the    Primate, 

he   and    his    examiners    thereafter    signing    the    written    confession. 

Mitchell's  papers,   Hatton's  letters  to  Kincardine,  and  the   Minutes 

of  the  Privy  Council  bear  this  out,  to  this  effect :   '  He  did  then  con- 

fesse  vpon  his  knees  he  was  the  person,  vpon  assurance  given  him  by 

one  of  the  Committy,  as  to  his  lyfe,  who  had  warrand  from  the  Lord 

Commissioner  and  Councill  to  give  the  same.'^     Two  days  later  he 

adhered  to  his  confession    before   the   Privy   Council,    the  members 

'  Mackenzie,  Memoirs,  273;  Kirkton,  342.  -  Blackadder,  Memoirs,  164. 

2  Burnet,  ii.  136  ;  Hist.  Not.,  90.  *  Burnet,  ii.  136  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  471. 

<■  Reg.  Sec.  Cone,  Acta,  1673-8,  p.  55,  12th  February  1674;  pp.  63,  64,  12th  March  1674; 
Papers  left  by  J.  M.,  Laing  MSS.,  Farrago,  269  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  248  ;  Just.  Rcc,  ii.  337. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       243 

of  this  court  condemning  him  to  lose  his  right  hand  and  to  be  for- 
feited ;  and  for  this  doom   passing  him  on   to   the  Justiciary  Court 
for  indictment  and  sentence.     On   2nd  March,    he  appeared   in  the 
dock.      As    one    of  the  judges,    who    hated    Sharp,    passed    by   the 
prisoner  to  the    bench,   he  said,    '  Confess    nothing,   unless   you    are 
sure  of   your  limbs  as  well   as  of  your    life.' ^     Naturally   Mitchell 
resiled   from   his  confession,   and   brought  about  a  deadlock   in  the 
court,  which  was  adjourned,  first  till  9th  March,  then  till  25th  March, 
when  the  Lord  Advocate  deserted  the  charge.^    Mitchell  was  com- 
mitted to  the  Tolbooth,  no  doubt  owing  this  respite  to  the  fact  that 
the  King's  abhorrence  of  bloodshed  made  the  Council  pause,  before 
imprisoning  him  on  the  Bass,  as  they  intended  to  do.     The  new  state 
prison  on  the  Bass  Rock,  a  solitary  islet  in  the  Firth  of  Forth,  was  Prison  on  the 
a  recent  acquisition  of  the  Crown  from  a  mmion  of  Lauderdale,  who 
advised  its  purchase  at  a  great  price,  and  then  had  himself  appointed 
as  its  salaried  captain/     It  was  the  most  vile  and  unwholesome  of 
prisons. 

Every  effort  was  made,  but  in  vain,  to  suppress  the  conventicles 
and  to  apprehend  the  fugitive  preachers.  Militiamen  and  informers 
scoured  the  country  in  search  of  Welsh,  Semple,  Cargill,  Blackadder, 
Veitch,  Peden,  Hog,  Eraser,  and  others,  ;^400  sterling  being  offered 
for  the  first  two,  and  1000  merks  for  each  of  the  others  alive 
or  dead.  Persecution  made  the  field-missions  prosper  the  more. 
Hosts  of  eight  or  ten  thousand  persons  assembled  to  hear  Welsh, 
Blackadder,  and  Welwood,  when  they  perambulated  Fifeshire.  The 
parish  churches  were  empty,  Rothes  and  his  household  being  the  only 
worshippers  in  Leslie  church  one  Sabbath.  This  happy  interlude, 
which  lasted  for  about  a  quarter  of  a  year,  was  called  'The  Blynk,' 'The  Biynk,' 
i.e.  a  glimpse  of  sunshine  amid  stormy  showers  and  darkness.* 
Brushes  with  the  military  became  more  frequent,  and  in  some  cases 

'  Burnet,  ii.  137.     For  indictment  and  trial,  ci.Just.  Rec,  ii.  255-62  ;  App.,  307-39. 
'  Just.  Rec,  ii.  268  ;   The  Scots  Worthies  (Carslaw's  edition),  3S2-97. 

'^  Accomfit   of  Scotland's    Grievances,   38;    M'Crie,    The  Bass   Rock,    17;    Blackadder, 
Memoirs,  267. 

^  Blackadder,  Memoirs,  155-69  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  234. 


244 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Capture  of 
Peden. 


The  widows' 
petition. 


prisoners  were  taken  and  blood  was  shed.  During  these  skirmishes 
the  much  excited  worshippers  imagined  they  saw  supernatural  beings 
protecting  them  from  the  harmless  shots  of  the  soldiery.  The 
garrison  of  Mid-Calder  surprised  a  conventicle  conducted  by  Riddell, 
shot  Davie,  a  heritor,  and  carried  away  some  prisoners  and  their 
clothes,  Bibles,  and  belongings.' 

Robert  Gillespie,  an  irregular  preacher  'at  the  horn,'  was  taken 
after  a  conventicle  at  Falkland,  and  on  2nd  April  sent  by  the  Privy 
Council  to  the  Bass  to  be  immured."  Gillespie  was  soon  followed  by 
the  hitherto  elusive  Peden,  whom  Major  Cockburn  captured  at 
Knockdow,  Ballantrae,  the  house  of  Hugh  Ferguson,  and  whom  the 
Council,  on  26th  June,  sentenced  to  the  Bass,  where  Peden  was  kept 
for  four  years.  Ferguson  was  fined  1000  merks  for  resetting  Peden, 
and  the  captors  were  handsomely  rewarded.' 

On  1 6th  June  the  Privy  Council  issued  an  Act  for  apprehending 
rebels,  especially  Welsh,  Semple,  and  Arnot,  and  offering  as  a  sub- 
stantial reward  to  informers  the  fines  exigible  from  conventiclers 
seized.*  Two  days  later  a  proclamation  made  heritors  liable  for  their 
tenantry,  masters  for  their  servants,  and  magistrates  for  burgesses, 
and  offered  the  escheats  to  heritors  and  liferenters.^  These  orders 
accorded  with  instructions  sent  from  the  King,  explaining,  '  It  is  not 
for  their  opinions,  but  their  traitorous  practices,  that  we  intend  to 
punish  them.'''  This  idea  of  Lauderdale  Mackenzie  afterwards 
repeated  in  his  Vindication  of  the  Government. 

On  4th  June  1674,  the  narrow  Parliament  Close  was  the  scene 
of  a  remarkable  incident  which  terrified  Sharp  into  imagining  that 
Jenny  Geddes  and  her  brigade  of  stool-throwers  had  seen  a  resurrec- 
tion. Fifteen  women,  mostly  in  widows'  weeds,  blocked  the  entry  to 
the  Council-chamber,  ready  to  thrust  into  each  councillor's  hand  a 

'  Blackadder  {Memoirs,  158)  calls  him  John.  A  gravestone  in  Rathgate  churchyard 
records  :  '  Here  lies  the  Body  of  James  Davie,  who  was  shot  at  Blackdub,  April  1673,  by 
Heron,'  etc.:  Martyr  Graves  of  Scotland,  237. 

^  Wodrow,  ii.  223. 

^  Walker,  Peden  in  Six  Saints,  i.  49  ;  ii.  130  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  224,  356  ;  M'Crie,  Bass,  31-3. 

*  Wodrow,  ii.  237  note.  '  Ibid.,  235  note.  '  Ibid.,  239  note. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       245 

petition  lamenting  their  spiritual  starvation  and  supplicating  that 
liberty  be  granted  to  faithful  ministers  to  provide  the  citizens  with 
a  pure  Gospel  after  the  Presbyterian  form.  Rothes  gallantly  received 
the  petition  of  Widow  Livingstone  with  raised  hat  and  insinuating 
speeches.  The  furtive  Sharp,  fearing  a  thrust  under  the  fifth  rib, 
hurried  past  amid  a  fusillade  of  vituperations,  such  as  '  Judas,'  '  traitor, 
glad  that  only  the  gentle  hand  of  a  widow  detained  him  while  she 
prophetically  exclaimed,  'that  neck  must  pay  for  it  ere  all  was  done.' 
The  Council  decreed  that  the  paper  was  seditious  and  that  the 
tumult  was  a  plot.  The  petitioners  were  summoned ;  a  few  were 
thrown  into  prison,  and  three — Mrs.  Elizabeth  Rutherford,  Wariston's 
daughter  Margaret,  and  Lady  Mersington — were  banished  out  of 
Edinburgh,^  chiefly  for  refusing  to  implicate  others.  Absentees  were 
denounced. 

In  March  1669,  the  city  of  Edinburgh  was  fined  ;^5o  for  a 
conventicle  held  in  Widow  Paton's  house;  on  24th  June  1674,  the 
city  had  to  pay  ;^ioo  for  a  conventicle  held  in  April  or  May  by  Weir 
and  Johnston  in  the  Magdalene  Chapel.  Some  of  the  attenders  at 
this  conventicle  were  still  in  prison  awaiting  trial.  Similarly  the  city 
of  Glasgow  was  fin^d  ;^ioo  for  recent  conventicles.  On  25th  June, 
the  Council  examined  a  batch  of  Fife  lairds  for  hearing  and  harbour- 
ing Welsh  and  other  preachers.  They  were  mulcted  in  20,000  merks, 
being  sent  back  to  jail  till  their  fines  were  paid."  No  favour  was  Fines, 
shown  to  any  one.     Linlithgow  politely  informed  Atholl  that  Atholl's  f^^^^^^' 

'  or/  fugitations. 

own  steward  had  been  fined  2000  merks  for  sheltering  Veitch.^  A 
long  list  of  persons  escheated  to  Sir  William  Sharp,  cash-keeper  to 
the  King,  shows  how  widespread  nonconformity  was  in  July  1674 
in  Fifeshire.*  It  includes  fifty  laymen,  two  ladies,  and  forty-two 
ministers,  including  Hog,  Welwood,  Kirkton,  and  Cargill.  Some 
appear  to  be  identical  with  the  Magus  Moor  conspirators.  Escheats 
were  often  sold  by  public  auction.  By  an  Act  of  i6th  July  witnesses 
were  forced  to  give  evidence  on  oath  regarding  conventiclers,  or  stand 

'  Mackenzie,  Mctnoirs,  273  ;  Kirkton,  344  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  246,  268. 

-  Wodrow,  ii.  238.  '  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  viii.  32.  ^  Wodronu  MSS.,  Ix. 


246 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Case  of 
Thomas 
Forrester, 
l62S(?)-i7o6. 


Nonconform- 
ists desire 
protection. 


confessed  themselves.  That  there  might  be  no  escape,  a  royal 
commission  was  granted  to  three  influential  courts,  mostly  com- 
posed of  nobles,  in  three  districts,  for  the  purpose  of  exterminating 
conventicles.' 

As  proving  how  weak  was  the  policy  of  repression  among  good 
and  thoughtful  men,  the  case  of  Thomas  Forrester,  Episcopal 
minister  at  Alva,  is  prominent.  After  a  minute  study  of  the 
Apologetical  Narration  by  Brown  and  similar  works  upon  the 
question,  Forrester  felt  himself  constrained  to  inform  his  co- 
presbyters  in  Stirling  that  he  was  prepared  to  prove  that  the  '  prelatic 
frame  of  government'  was  both  unlawful  and  unscriptural.  The 
brethren  never  asked  his  proofs.  He  left  their  meetings  to  associate 
with  the  persecuted.  He  was  apprehended  and  imprisoned  in 
Edinburgh  in  the  spring  of  1674,  but  took  advantage  of  the  in- 
demnity in  March  to  obtain  freedom.  On  29th  April  the  diocesan 
Synod  of  Dunkeld  deposed  him."  He  became  a  field-preacher, 
latterly  an  able  polemic  and  defender  of  Presbytery,  and,  after  the 
Revolution,  was  appointed  Principal  of  St.  Mary's,  at  St,  Andrews, 
and  Professor  of  Divinity.* 

At  this  juncture  the  nonconformists  were  anxiously  devising  means 
whereby  a  succession  of  sound  ministers  might  be  maintained  and 
united  under  Presbyterial  rule.  Regulations  were  suggested  for  licens- 
ing the  wandering  students  who  accompanied  the  outlawed  preachers, 
for  giving  calls,  for  establishing  Church  courts,  and  for  asking  the 
protection  of  the  Crown  for  loyal  Presbyterians.^  Large  numbers  of 
the  outed  ministers  met  in  Edinburgh  in  June,  and  after  drawing  up 
a  series  of  overtures,  adjourned  till  October.  These  overtures  were 
sent  down  to  Presbyteries  or  '  societies '  for  discussion  and  approval, 
and  the  substance  of  them  and  of  the  facts  relative  to  the  Church  was 
included  in  an  address   to  the  Government.      The  overtures  were 


'  Wodrow,  ii.  245. 


IMd.,  258. 


^  Forrester  wrote  Rcctius  Instrueiidiim  in  1681,  published  1684  ;  The  Hierarchical  Bishofs 
Claim,  etc.,  1699,  a  reply  to  Scott,  Munro,  and  Honyman  ;  Review  and  Consideration,  reply 
to  Sage,  1706.  *  Wodrow,  ii.  272. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       247 

generally  approved  of.'  The  righteous  desired  ministers  and  meeting- 
houses ;  their  rulers  gave  them  General  George  Munro,  the  militia, 
and  thirteen  garrisons ! 

Not  all  the  clergy  of  the  Established  Church  had  lost  their  Conformists 
interest  in  self-government,  and  many  of  them  desired  a  national  national 
Synod  wherein  they  might  publicly  appear  as  operative  members  of  ^y™"^- 
a  Church  with  a  constitution,  and  having  some  say  in  the  administra- 
tion of  its  own  distinctive  affairs.  This  was  considered  the  more 
necessary  that  the  Established  Church  now  had  no  authorised 
Standards,  apart  from  the  Presbyterian  Standards.  Some  leading 
laymen  also  thought  a  Synod  desirable.  The  movement  took  shape 
in  May  1674.  Sir  William  Sharp,  at  the  instance  of  Atholl,  Argyll, 
Murray,  and  Linlithgow,  on  7th  May,  wrote  to  Lauderdale  upon  the 
subject,"  who  in  turn  informed  Leighton  that  he  could  not  concur  in 
the  proposal,  since  he  could  '  expect  no  manner  of  good '  from  a 
Synod.  Some  bishops  were  as  friendly  to  the  proposal  as  the  Primate 
was  inimical  to  it.  Notably  James  Ramsay,  Leighton's  successor  in 
Dunblane,  the  same  enthusiast  who  bonfired  the  Covenant  at  Lin- 
lithgow, and  rescued  Hamilton  while  gallantly  he  fought  for  the  Kino- 
at  Rullion  Green,  voiced  the  opinions  of  his  diocese.  Laurie,  '  the 
nest  egg,'  now  Bishop  of  Brechin,  also  favoured  the  proposal.^  Four 
incumbents  in  the  diocese  of  Edinburgh — Turner,  Cant,  Robertson, 
and  Hamilton — tried  to  induce  Young,  the  Bishop  of  Edinburgh,  who 
was  supposed  to  be  sympathetic,  to  persuade  the  Primate  to  convene 
a  Synod.*  Sharp  was  incensed  at  the  idea.  He  frantically  wrote  to 
the  English  Primate  declaring  '  the  Gospel  is  at  stake  .  .  .  there  is 
a  fire  set  to  our  own  bed-straw  by  sons  of  our  own  bowels,  who 
viper-like  seek  to  eat  that  which  produced  them.  .  .  .  Cant,  a 
presbyter,  has  shaken  off  all  fear  of  God  .  .  .  calling  me  a  great 
grievance  to  the  church  .  .  .'  and  unless  Canterbury  would  come  to 
his  help  he  would  suffer  shipwreck  and  the  Church  be  wounded.' 
Sharp  entreated  Sheldon  to  influence  the  King  against  the  proposal. 

'  Row,  li/air,  542  ;  Wodrovv,  ii.  274.  ^  Laud.  Pap.,  iii.  42,  54.  3  Wodrow,  ii.  300. 

*  Laud.  Pap.,  iii.  46.  '>  Wodrow,  ii.  301  ;  iMing  MSS.,  81,  82. 


248 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Sharp  and 

Lauderdale 

suppress 

Bishop 

Ramsay. 


Meantime,  in  St.  Andrews  on  8th  July,  he  called  a  meeting  of  the 
bishops  of  his  province  with  some  presbyters  to  discuss  and  practi- 
cally to  shelve  the  subject.  Bishop  Ramsay  made  an  honest  stand 
and  gave  reasons  for  the  need  of  reform  in  the  Church.  Sharp 
rebuked  Ramsay,  who  left  the  meeting.  As  soon,  therefore,  as 
opportunity  offered,  Sharp  hurried  up  to  London  and  stayed  nine 
months  croaking  over  incipient  revolution.  The  peacemakers  fell 
on  trouble.  Insubordination  was  insufferable  to  the  bureaucratic 
Lauderdale,  who  got  a  royal  mandate  for  the  removal  of  the  petition- 
ing ministers  from  their  charges,  and  for  the  transference  of  Ramsay, 
within  fourteen  days,  to  the  See  of  the  Isles,  beyond  the  reach  of 
'  meddling  with  affairs  relative  to  the  church.'  ^  The  warrior  bishop, 
who  denied  all  factious  intentions,  and  admitted  his  desire  for  the 
authorisation  of  regulative  formularies,  was  not  to  be  suppressed. 
He  carried  his  case  to  court.  He  wrote  fierce  letters  to  Sharp, 
accused  him  of  tyranny,  threatened  him  with  the  revelation  of  '  foul 
things,'  and  refused  to  attend  meetings  where  there  was  no  right  of 
free  speech.^  After  a  conflict  for  more  than  a  year  Ramsay  found 
himself  outwitted  by  astuter  diplomatists,  and  was  compelled  to 
submit  obsequiously  to  the  Primate  after  an  inquiry  in  a  court  of 
bishops  presided  over  by  the  Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  and  humbly  to 
throw  himself  'at  his  sacred  Majesty's  feet.'  ^ 

The  national  Synod  was  not  convened.  With  the  retiral  of 
Archbishop  Leighton  and  the  reinstallation  of  Alexander  Burnet, 
29th  September  1674,  the  exterminators  of  the  Covenanters  had  their 
hands  strengthened,  and  the  policy  of  '  blood  and  iron '  was  prose- 
cuted with  greater  vigour  than  ever. 

A  rigorous  winter  followed  by  a  blasting  summer,  'making  the 
heavens  brass  and  the  earth  iron,'  although  it  'broke  the  staff  of 
their  bread,'  was  to  the  Covenanters  a  light  affliction  compared  with 

'  i6th  July  1674  :  Wodrow,  ii.  304.  *  Wodrow  MSS.,  xxxii.  129. 

2  Turner,  Cant,  and  Robertson  also  submitted  :  Wodrow,  ii.  315,  342  ;  Kirkton,  348  ;  Laud. 
Pap.,  iii.  64;  Grub,  Hist.,  iii.  250-2;  Law,  Memoirs,  70,  71,  84.  Ramsay  was  recalled,  27th 
April  1675,  was  translated  to  Ross  in  1684,  and  died  in  Edinburgh  on  22nd  October  1696. 
Cant  was  afterwards  appointed  Principal  of  Edinburgh  College. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       249 

the  cruel  humiliation  imposed  upon  them  by  an  order  of  the  Privy 
Council,  that  all  the  lieges  should  assemble  in  the  parish  churches 
on  a  fixed  Fast  Day  to  confess  sin,  repent,  and  thereby  avert  the 
wrath  of  God/ 

The  indulged  clergy  were  worst  off,  because  some  of  them  had  The  policy  of 

,       -  1      1  •      1         1    I  ■  1  r       '™"  ^"<i  blood. 

got  no  Stipends  for  years,  and  this  hardship  was  a  good  reason  for 
their  ignoring  their  instructions  and  ministering  beyond  their  licensed 
districts,  in  order  to  regain  some  popularity,  and  with  it,  bread.  The 
Government  at  once  prosecuted  these  breakers  of  the  licence.^ 
The  fever  of  conventicling  nowhere  abated,  although  informers  and 
troopers  with  dogs  ranged  everywhere  in  search  of  the  elusive 
preachers  in  the  Lothians,  Fife,  and  the  south,  and  heavy  fines  were 
imposed  on  towns  where  illegal  preachings  took  place.^  A  party 
of  guardsmen  with  their  hounds  by  night  surprised  the  house  of 
Cardross.  They  were  disguised  as  civilians.  They  were  in  search 
of  John  King,  chaplain  there,  Robert  Langlands,  tutor,  and  any 
incriminating  papers.  Sir  Mungo  Murray  was  the  hero  of  this 
illegal  and  brutal  burglary,  in  which  they  inhumanly  treated  the 
delicate  Lady  Cardross,  as  well  as  broke  up  lockfast  places,  and 
carried  off  King.  The  peasantry  rose  and  rescued  him.  Rightly, 
Cardross  petitioned  the  Council  for  redress,  only  to  find  himself  in 
August  charged  with  being  associated  with  criminal  rescuers  of  an 
irregular  preacher ;  his  wife,  too,  was  accused  of  harbouring  a  rebel 
conventicler.  The  Council  ordered  Cardross  to  prison  in  the  Castle  Prosecution  of 
of  Edinburgh  during  the  King's  pleasure,  and  fined  him  in  /^i  1 12,  Cardross" 
I  OS.  sterling.  They  also  turned  his  house  into  a  garrison.  Not  till 
February  1677  was  he  released,  then  to  be  charged  afresh  for  his 
having  two  children  baptized  by  unlicensed  ministers,  for  which  he 
was  fined  in  one-half  of  his  valued  rent.'* 

News  of  the  rescue  was  sent  to  London,  whence  a  letter  came  in 
June  demanding   an   inquiry    into    the    continued    disorders.      As    a 

'  Wodrow,  ii.  280  note  :   15th  July  1675.  -  Ibid.,  296. 

^  At  a  fight  at  Bathgate  fifteen  prisoners  were  taken — 13th  March    1675  :  Laud.  Pap, 
iii.  77. 

•  Wodrow,  ii.  288-93,  357.  35S- 

VOL.  II.  2  I 


250 


THE  COVENANTERS 


'  Jeddart 
justice '  on 
the  Borders. 


'  Letters  of 
Intercommun- 
ing,'  6th 
August  1675. 


result  of  this  the  Council  passed  an  Act,  13th  July,  establishing 
thirteen  garrisons  in  the  counties  of  Perth,  Linlithgow,  Kinross, 
Lanark,  Selkirk,  Roxburgh,  Stirling,  Renfrew,  Ayr,  Dumfries,  and 
empowering  the  district  commissioners  of  excise  to  quarter  and 
victual  the  troops.'  This  novel  exaction  was  resisted  by  some  land- 
lords in  Berwickshire.  Sir  Patrick  Hume  of  Polwarth  boldly  refused 
payment  and  lodged  a  bill  of  suspension  against  the  decreet,  which 
brought  the  whole  subject  before  the  Council.  They  gave  Polwarth 
'  Jeddart  justice,'  imprisoning  him  till  the  King's  pleasure  was  de- 
clared. In  October,  the  King  replied  approving  of  this  treatment  of 
Polwarth  as  '  a  factious  person,'  declaring  him  incapable  of  all  public 
trust,  and  ordering  him  to  a  cell  in  Stirling  Castle."  In  his  trials 
Polwarth  was  supported  and  encouraged  to  be  firm  by  the  Earl  of 
Home,  Lord  Cardross,  and  the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  the  latter  promis- 
ing him  help.^  The  baffled  Council  devised  a  new  method  of  striking 
at  those  who  refused  to  compear  in  court,  or  to  observe  the  terms  of 
the  Indulgence.  This  method  was  promulgated  in  the  scandalous 
'Letters  of  Intercommuning,'  6th  August  1675.''  This  proclamation 
discharged  the  lieges  from  resetting,  supplying  with  meat,  drink, 
shelter,  or  intelligence,  from  intercommuning  with  certain  rebels  then 
'  at  the  horn  '  and  therein  designated,  under  pain  of  being  prosecuted 
as  'art  and  part  with  them.'  Twenty-one  ministers  were  named, 
among  the  number  being  Cargill,  Welsh,  Semple,  Arnot,  Hog, 
M'Gilligen,  Eraser  of  Brea,  King,  and  seventy-three  men  and  women, 
many  of  them  heritors,  ladies  of  title,  and  dames  of  influence.  On 
3rd  August  1676,  this  black  list  was  augmented  by  the  names  of 
Kirkton,  Welwood,  Donaldson,  and  other  famous  field-preachers. 
Thus  the  doom  of  traitors  was  applicable  to  the  friends  or  suspected 
friends  of  the  outlaws. 

During  the  perpetration  of  the  severities  in  Fifeshire,  four  out- 
laws   distinguished    themselves,    and    were    largely    instrumental    in 


'  Wodrow,  ii.  282.  '  Ibid.,  294  ;  Row,  Blair,  562,  565. 

^  Marclwiont  Papers  ;  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  xiv.  App.  iii.  112,  1  ij- 
■•  Aldis,  List,  2058,  2077  ;  Wodiow,  ii.  286  note. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       251 

bringing  about  that  state  of  affairs  which  ultimately  ended  in  the  Outlaws  in 
triumph  of  Covenanting  principles.  These  were  Donald  Cargill,  clrliu.  °° 
Richard  Cameron,  John  Balfour  of  Kinloch,  and  David  Hackston  of 
Rathillet.  Cargill  had,  since  October  1662,  been  the  outed  minister 
of  the  Barony,  Glasgow,  where  he  had  served  seven  years.  He  was 
the  son  of  Laurence  Cargill,  notary,  and  laird  of  a  small  estate  in 
Rattray,  and  of  his  wife  Marjorie  Blair.  He  matriculated  in  St. 
Salvator's  College  in  1645,  '^^^  w^s  licensed  by  the  Presbytery  of 
St.  Andrews  on  13th  April  1653.*  At  the  height  of  this  con- 
venticling  period  he  was  in  his  prime,  and  well  able  to  attempt  the 
memorable  long  '  Cargill  loup  '  over  the  fearful  chasm  in  the  Keith, 
when  he  was  chased  from  the  Haerchen  Hill.  A  sad,  silent,  prayerful 
prophet  was  Cargill,  mourning  a  dead  wife,  lamenting  the  destruction 
of  the  Church,  and  uttering  malisons  thus  :  '  Wo,  wo,  wo  to  him  [the 
King],  his  name  shall  stink  while  the  world  stands  for  treachery, 
tyranny,  and  leachery  ...  if  these  men  die  the  ordinary  death  of 
men,  then  God  never  sent  me,  nor  spoke  by  me.'- 

Among  the  names  of  conventiclers  in  1675  appear  those  of  Richard 
'  Allan  Cameron,  merchant  in  Faulkland,  Margaret  Paterson,  his  *'""°°- 
spouse,  Mr.  Richard  Cameron,  his  son,  Michael  Cameron,  indweller 
there.' ^  Richard  Cameron  was  born  in  Falkland,  matriculated  in 
St.  Andrews  in  March  1662,  and  took  the  degree  of  M.A.  on 
22nd  July  1665.  Thereafter  he  became  schoolmaster  and  precentor 
in  Falkland.*  Cameron  came  under  the  influence  of  the  stirring 
outlawed  preacher,  John  Welwood,  whom  we  find  in  1675  writing  to 
Richard  :  '  You  have  the  honour  to  be  persecuted  for  righteousness  : 
have  a  care,  be  not  lifted  up,  for  there  may  be  several  tryals  before 
your  hand.'*  Welwood  also  wrote  from  Dundee  :  '  My  desire  is  that 
the  Lord  may  help  you  to  be  holy  and  harmless  in  a  crooked  genera- 

'  Patrick  Walker,  Some  Remarkable  Passages  in  the  Life  atid  Death  of  .  .  .  Cargill,  1 732  ; 
iiix  Saints,  ii.  1-62,  119-222  ;  Biog.  Presby.,  ii.  1-54  (Edin.,  1837). 

^  Six  Saints,  ii.  8,  10.  ^  VVodrow  MSS.,  xxxiii.  142. 

*  Patrick  Walker,  Life,  in  Biog.  Presb.,  i.  191-319;  Six  Saints,  i.  215-365;  ii.  155-98; 
Downie,  The  Early  Home  of  Richard  Cameron,  1-38  ;  \\.^x\i!i^%%,  Richard  Cameron  {Y3xaQi\.\% 
Scots  Series, /fi.r.f/w).  =  Edin.,  13th  Dec.  1675  '■  Laing  .\fSS.,  359,  fol.  4. 


252  THE  COVENANTERS 

tion.'  He  accompanied  Welsh  in  his  wanderings,  and  won  the  esteem 
of  that  good  man  for  his  piety  and  gifts.  When  the  itinerant 
Presbytery  met  at  Henry  Hall's  house,  Haughhead,  Teviotdale, 
Welsh,  Semple,  and  other  ministers  licensed  Cameron,  knowing  that 
he  was  an  enemy  of  the  Indulgence.  They  sent  him  on  a  mission  to 
the  unregenerate  in  Annandale,  and  on  his  appearing  timid,  Welsh 
encouraged  him  with  the  moving  benediction,  'Go  your  way,  Ritchie; 
set  the  fire  of  hell  to  their  tail.'  *  This  the  clerical  Samson  effectively 
did.  That  imported  flame,  stirring  the  inflammable  Celtic  disposition 
of  Cameron,  made  him  an  uncompromising  antagonist  of  the  Govern- 
ment and  of  their  lukewarm  allies — the  indulged.  After  joining 
Welwood  and  Kid  in  their  perilous  and  discouraging  campaign 
against  the  favourers  of  compromise  with  the  regnant  party  in  State 
and  Church,  Cameron  deemed  it  expedient  to  seek  a  refuge  on  the 
Continent,  whither  Welwood  sent  him  a  letter,  on  26th  January  1677, 
grudging  him  his  'stay  where  no  religion  is.'- 
john  Balfour—  Among  the  auditors  of  the  field-preachers  in  Fife,  in  the  summer 
K^niochr"^  ^^  1672,  was  'John  Balfour,  portioner  in  Kinloch,'^  in  the  parish  of 
Collessie.  He  was  a  squat,  squint-eyed,  fierce-looking  man,  and  was 
known  as  '  Burly.'  With  the  strain  of  the  wild  unreliable  Balfour  of 
Burleigh  blood  in  him,  it  was  not  singular  that  he  should  disobey  the 
order  of  the  court  to  compear  and  answer  for  conventicling,  for  which 
contempt  of  court  he  was  under  warrant  for  apprehension.  In  all 
likelihood  he  is  the  same  criminal  mentioned  in  a  list  of  escheats 
granted  to  Sir  William  Sharp,  and  also  in  the  '  Letters  of  Inter- 
communing.'*  Balfour's  brother-in-law,  David  Halkerstoun,  or 
Hackston,  proprietor  of  Rathillet,  in  Kilmany  parish,  succeeded  his 
father  in  1670.*  He  was  esteemed  a  gallant  country  gendeman,  at 
first  of  the  prelatic  party,  and  having  employment  of  some  kind  from 

•  Si.r  Saints,  i.  219.  2  Laiti^  MSS.,  359,  fol.  33. 

'  John  Balfour  of  Kinloch,  son  of  John  Balfour  and  Grizzel  H.iy,  daughter  of  Hay  of  Paris, 
Perthshire,  born  c.  1640  ;  served  heir  to  his  grandfather  Robert,  26th  February  1663  ;  married 
Barbara  Hackston,  sister  of  Hackston  of  Rathillet.  His  confiscated  property  went  to  Lord 
Lindores  :  Scot.  Mai^.,  i.  130  (September  18 17). 

'   Wodro'jj  MSS.,  Ix.  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  287,  288  note.  °  Miller,  Fife,  ii.  318. 


John  Balfour  of  Kinloch — '  liurly  ' 

(^Photographed  from  a  Portrait  in  the  possession  of  Charles  Pearson,  Esq.,  Alloa,  by  Mr.  A.  Piihie.,  Allca. 
Prepared  by  Mr.  C.  S^veet,  /Co/hesay) 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       253 

Rothes.  A  sordid  transaction  on  the  part  of  Archbishop  Sharp  Uavid  Hack- 
resulted  in  his  being  brought  into  active  alliance  with  the  con-  Raihiiiet. 
venticlers.  It  is  a  story  of  agrarian  outrage.  The  estate  of 
Cunnoquhie  in  Monimail,  a  gift  of  James  iii.  to  the  church  of 
St.  Andrews,  was  held  by  a  family  of  Lovells,  the  last  of  whom, 
William,  became  bankrupt,  and  in  resisting  a  distraint  in  1671 
killed  the  sheriff-officer,  for  which  he  was  summoned  to  the  Justiciary 
Court.^  On  the  restoration  of  the  hierarchy,  Sharp  became  superior 
of  Cunnoquhie,  and,  on  Lovell's  failure  to  pay  the  feu-duties,  resumed 
possession  of  the  fief,  to  the  detriment  of  the  heirs  and  creditors." 
Hackston  appears  to  have  had  two  interests  in  the  estate,  being  a 
creditor,  and  also  acting  as  collector  of  the  Episcopal  rents  for 
his  friend,  Sharp.  For  a  bond  of  ^1000  Scots,  Sharp  sold 
his  interest  to  Hackston.  Sharp  was  notorious  for  avariciousness. 
Hackston  failed  to  implement  his  bargain,  or  to  give  satisfactory 
count  and  reckoning,  with  the  result  that  Sharp  threw  him  into 
jail,  where  he  lay  for  months.  On  his  release  Hackston  swore, 
'  God  damn  him  if  ever  he  went  to  church  so  long  as  there  was  a 
bishop  in  Scotland.''  The  popularity  of  the  Primate  was  not  increased 
by  the  fact  that  his  brother,  as  cash-keeper  to  the  King,  intromitted 
with  the  fines,  and  by  the  suspicion  that  Rothes  and  the  Archbishop 
worked  to  each  other's  hands.''  The  King  blamed  the  authorities  for 
winking  at  conventicles  in  order  to  get  fines,  and  said  to  Monmouth 
that  if  Rothes  and  the  other  nobles  had  done  their  duty  there  would 
have  been  no  conventicles  in  Fife.* 

The  unsuccessful  attempt  of  James  Mitchell,  in  December  1675,  e™'^'  turiure 
to  break  the   Tolbooth,  gave   the  Privy  Council   an   opportunity  to  lUl'^^i^ 
examine  that  undischarged  prisoner.     The  new  charge  was  that  he  Januarj'  1675. 
was  in   the  rebellion   of   1666;    and    his  alleged   confession   to   that 
effect  before  the  Council,  now  produced  to  the  Lords  of  Justiciary, 
he  renounced.      To  elicit  the  facts,  the  Council  authorised  a  joint 

'  Jits/.  Rec.^  ii.  58,  60,  63  ;  Book  of  Adjournal,  17th  July  1671. 

-  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  V.  449.  3  ^  jy^^  Relation,  etc.,  A7ial.  Scot.,  ii.  38S. 

*  MacWard  Papers,  Woiiroiv  MSS.,  \\.  (lat.  5.  i.  10),  SS.        »  Laud.  Pap.,  23242,  fol.  I. 


254  THE  COVENANTERS 

bench  of  judges  and  nobles  to  torture  him.  In  the  vaulted  chamber 
beneath  the  House  of  Parliament,  where  Linlithgow  presided  on 
the  night  of  the  i8th  January,  the  inquiry  began.  The  accused 
justly  pleaded  that  he  had  stood  his  trial.  Linlithgow  set  aside  the 
plea,  asserting  that  he  was  only  asked  to  own  a  former  confession. 
The  first  diet  ended  with  the  threat  of  'a  sharper  thing.'  At  the 
second  diet,  22nd,  the  ugly  boots  and  wedges  lay  on  the  table,  and 
Linlithgow  said  to  the  prisoner,  '  I  will  see  if  that  will  make  you 
do  it.'  Mitchell,  who  knew  the  law,  argued  that  a  confession 
extorted  by  torture  could  not  be  used  against  him  or  others.  The 
judges  hesitated  and  adjourned.  At  a  third  diet,  24th,  the  court 
met  in  the  inner  Parliament  House,  in  full  state.  The  executioner 
and  his  instruments  were  there.  Mitchell  was  obdurate.  The 
executioner  tied  him  to  a  chair,  and  asked  the  judges  which  leg 
they  selected  for  the  boots.  '  Either,'  was  the  reply.  Mitchell 
boldly  exclaimed,  '  Take  the  best  of  the  two,  for  I  freely  bestow  it 
in  the  cause.'  He  dropped  the  right  leg  into  the  frame.  As  the 
torture  proceeded.  Lord  Advocate  Nisbet  and  he  debated  on  the 
question  of  magisterial  function  and  power.  The  grand  test  of 
morale  began  as  the  wedges  were  slowly  driven  down,  thirty  queries 
being  ejected  amid  the  blows,  followed  by  the  rasping  question  of 
the  judicial  tongue,  'Any  more  to  say?'  As  often  repeated  was  the 
resolute  reply,  '  No  more,  my  Lords.'  At  the  ninth  stroke,  nature 
failed.  'Alas,  my  Lord,  he  is  gone,'  cried  the  executioner.  The 
torturers  vanished.  As  soon  as  Mitchell  recovered  from  the  swoon 
he  was  carried  back  to  prison — his  smashed  limb  being  unable  to 
support  him.  It  was  said  that  the  torture  would  have  been  renewed 
had  not  Sharp  received  a  warning  that  he  would  get  a  shot  from  a 
steadier  hand.  The  injured  man  was  kept  in  the  Tolbooth  till 
Mitchell  con-  January  1677,  when  he  was  transported  to  the  Bass  with  the  devout 
Eraser  of  Brea.  In  direst  misery  he  lay  there  another  year,  till 
Sharp  discovered  another  prosecutor  from  whose  clutches  he  could 
not  escape.  Peden  might  rove  over  his  rocky  Patmos,  Eraser  might 
pluck  the  cherries  in   its  garden,  but  broken    Mitchell   might   only 


fined  on  the 
Bass. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       255 

hear  in  darkness  the  scream  of  the  sea-gulls  and  the  distant  psalm 
of  praise.^  With  this  form  of  entertainment  the  governors  of 
Scotland  began  the  year  1676.  Before  they  saw  the  end  of  it  they 
had  made  many  a  home  desolate  and  many  a  heart  sad.  The  Govern- 
ment were  not  dealing  with  a  few  ignorant  fanatical  peasants,  being 
forced  to  acknowledge  that  '  Schollars,  merchants,  and  tradesmen 
are  the  chief  persons  who  are  ordinarily  poisoned  with  factions  and 
Schismatick  principles.' " 

The  Council,  attributing  the  decay  of  religion  to  absenteeism  a  Fresh 
from  church,  sounded  another  blast  on  their  horn,  on  ist  March  ,st  March ' 
1676,  in  a  'Proclamation  against  Conventicles.''  It  ordered  the '^7^- 
prosecution  of  Papists  and  other  schismatics,  the  seizure  of  '  all  such 
preachers  as  with  their  families  do  not  attend  public  worship,'  the 
fining  of  all  magistrates  and  heritors  for  conventicles  held  on  their 
property,  with  power  to  recover  the  fines  from  the  culprits,  the 
licensing  of  teachers  and  chaplains,  the  arrangement  of  rewards 
for  informers,  and  the  imposing  of  fines  on  remiss  magistrates.  A 
census  was  ordered  of  all  who  had  taken  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and 
supremacy  ;  and  special  courts  were  commissioned  to  see  the  laws 
executed  in  every  shire.''  The  inquisition  began  with  the  summoning 
of  heritors  and  ministers  in  the  west  to  confess  their  recent  dealings 
with  the  intercommuned.  The  ministers  not  compearing  were  out- 
lawed. Some  gentlemen,  refusing  to  declare  on  oath,  were  held 
as  confessed,  and  sent  to  prison  for  months  till  their  friends  paid 
their  fines.  With  such  phenomenal  activity  of  the  law-officers, 
military,  and  .spies,  the  outlaws  and  conventiclers  practised  wariness. 
Their  gatherings  were  held  in  remotest  places,  and  the  sacraments 
were  even  dispensed  by  night.  Welsh  was  untiring,  even  preaching 
in  the  middle  of  the  frozen  Tweed,  that  '  two  nations  might  dispute 
his  crime. "^  His  friends  paid  dearly  for  their  attachment  to  him — 
Durham  of  Largo  being  mulcted  in/ 1200  Scots  for  resetting  him, 

'  Wodrow,  ii.  455-7  ;  Law,  Memoirs,  85  ;  Fraser,  Mem.  in  Select  Biof;.,  ii.  344. 
^  '  Lauderdale's  plan  against  Schism' :  Wodro-M  MSS.,  xliii.  (Rob.  iii.  3.  16),  15. 
'  Aldis,  List,  2081  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  318  note.  ^  Wodrow,  ii.  320,  323. 

"  Kirkton,  372. 


256  THE  COVENANTERS 

and  2500  merks  for  attending  his  preaching  twice.     Veitch  held  a 
conventicle  of  four  thousand  persons  on  the  Blue  Cairn  on  Lauder- 
dale's   land    in   defiance  of  him   on   26th  April   1676.      In    the  wild 
uplands  on  the  Borders,  Welsh,  Arnot,  Semple,  and  Scott  found  a 
temporary   asylum    until    the    long   arm  of   the    law    reached    them. 
Others  crossed  to  Ireland. 
Convention  of         On    20th    May,    some  expelled  clergy,  fifty  or  sixty  in   number, 
clergy,  May      Stealthily     assembled      in     Edinburgh     to     discuss     the     situation. 
1676.  Alexander    Forrester,    minister  of    St.     Mungo,    was    clerk    of    the 

meeting,  which  assumed  the  function  of  a  Commission  of  the  Church, 
and  sat  about  a  week  transacting  business  competent  to  a  Church 
court,  regarding  preachers,  correspondence  with  the  disunited 
portions  of  the  Church,  and  the  proposals  of  the  Government. 
Forrester  and  his  minutes  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  authorities,'  when 
Forrester  was  apprehended  for  the  second  time,  after  he  had  served 
a  term  of  imprisonment  in  St.  Andrews  and  on  the  Bass  Rock. 
Among  the  preachers  at  this  time  summoned  by  the  Council  for 
intrusion  was  Hugh  Campbell  in  Muirkirk,  whom  we  shall  after- 
wards find  trying  to  overcome  the  scruples  of  John  Brown  of 
Priesthill.- 
james  Kiikton  Jamcs  Kirkton,  formerly  minister  at  Mertoun,  and  now  at  the 
trepanned.  hom  for  refusing  to  be  indulged  minister  at  Carstairs  and  for 
conventicling  at  Cramond,  had  a  singular  experience  in  June  1676 
which  he  records  in  his  History.^'  At  noon,  on  the  streets  of  Edin- 
burgh, he  was  politely  accosted  by  a  gentleman  and  inveigled  into 
a  house,  to  find  that  he  was  trepanned  into  a  dungeon  by  the 
notorious  Captain  Carstairs.  Kirkton's  friends,  having  traced  him, 
arrived  at  the  nick  of  time,  when  Carstairs,  who  had  just  drawn  his 
pistol,  found  himself  in  grips  and  grounded  by  the  more  athletic 
outlaw.  Kirkton's  brother-in-law,  Robert  Baillie  of  Jerviswood,  and 
others  separated  the  combatants.  Carstairs  rushed  to  Hatton  to 
complain  of  this  rescue  of  a  fanatic  preacher,  and  to  inflame  the 
Council.      Sharp    demanded    vengeance,    lest    punishers  of  disorder 

'  Wodrow,  ii.  355.  -  Ibid.,  323.  ^  Hist.,  367. 


.  SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE      257 

should  be  discouraged.  The  rescuers  were  apprehended.  At  their 
trial  a  warrant,  fabricated  after  the  fracas,  purporting  to  be  Carstairs' 
order  for  the  seizure  of  Kirkton,  was  produced.  That  settled  the 
case.  For  deforcing  an  officer  of  the  Crown  Baillie  was  fined  .^^500 
sterling  and  sentenced  to  lie  in  prison  till  he  paid  it ;  while  his 
two  comrades  were  also  heavily  fined  and  sent  to  prison.  For  four 
months  Baillie  lay  in  the  cells  in  Edinburgh  and  Stirling  Castles 
before  he  was  released.  Carstairs  was  encouraged  in  his  villainy  by 
receiving  3000  merks  out  of  Baillie's  fine.'  Baillie  was  more  than 
ever  a  marked  man,  being  considered  a  bird  out  of  a  bad  nest — a 
descendant  of  Knox  and  the  son-in-law  of  Wariston.  Kirkton  was 
specially  marked  for  punishment,  his  name  heading  the  list  of  fifteen 
intercommuned  ministers  proclaimed  on  3rd  August  1676. 

To  render  the  punitive  work  of  the  Government  more  effective  The  Scots 

,  .      .  ,  ,  1        T     1  .....  Star  Chamber. 

a  royal  commission,  dated  20th  July,  was  received  instituting  a 
'  Committee  of  Public  Affairs,"  consisting  of  the  two  archbishops, 
Argyll,  Mar,  Murray,  Linlithgow,  Seaforth,  Kinghorn,  Dundonald, 
Elphinstone,  Lord  Privy  Seal,  President,  Treasurer- Depute,  Advo- 
cate, Justice-Clerk,  Lord  Collington,  or  any  three  of  them  ;  Sharp  to 
be  vice-chairman,  with  plenary  powers,  '  to  do  all  things  necessary 
to  his  Majesty's  service."''  It  was  another  '  Star  Chamber'  instituted 
to  engineer  the  persecution. 

The  biographer  of  the  Lord  Advocates  had  justification  for  Forgotten 
asserting:  'On  taking  office  [in  1677]  Mackenzie  found  the  jails  full '"^  ""^' 
of  wretches  whom  Nisbet  had  left  in  chains,  because  he  had  neither 
been  bribed  to  prosecute  them  nor  bribed  to  release  them.'  ^  Prisoners, 
for  whom  no  victuals  were  provided,  lay  long  untried,  often  forgotten. 
This  is  proved  by  the  petition  of  seven  untried  conventiclers  who  had 
lain  in  Stirling  Tolbooth  for  fifteen  months  and  now  sought  liberation, 
being,  they  confessed,  '  poor  old  decrepit  bodies  .  .  .  poor  creatures 
with  wives  and  families.  We  have  been  many  times  at  the  point  of 
starving,  and  had  long  ere  now  died  for  want,  if  we  had  not  been 

'  Wodrow,  ii.  328  ;  Kirkton,  370;  Burnet,  Hist.,  ii.  114. 

^  Wodrow,  ii.  324.  ^  Omond,  The  Lord  Advocates,  i.  213. 

VOL.  II.  2  K 


258  THE  COVENANTERS 

supplied  by  the  charity  of  other  people.'  The  Council  disponed  them 
to  Captain  Maitland  for  serfdom  or  military  service  in  France,  and 
they  were  smuggled  away  at  midnight  in  fetters  and  guarded  by 
soldiery,'  one  being  discharged  because  he  appeared  to  be  dying. 

In  the  early  winter  of  1676,  many  clergy  and  laity,  including  ladies, 
were  prosecuted,  denounced,  fined,  or  sent  to  prison  till  they  found 
cautioners  for  their  fines,  among  the  number  being  Widow  Guthrie, 
relict  of  the  minister  of  Tarbolton,  and  Bessie  Muir,  relict  of 
Alexander  Dunlop  of  Paisley,  mother  of  Principal  Dunlop.'- 

Kerof  A    fellow-prisoner    in    Stirling  with    Baillie   in  August  1676  was 

ersan  .  Robert  Ker  of  Kersland,  Dairy,  who  had  been  in  various  jails  since 
1670.  After  Rullion  Green  he  escaped  to  Utrecht,  whence  he 
returned  in  the  end  of  1669  to  see  his  estate  enjoyed  by  General 
Drummond,  and  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Government  through  the 
treachery  of  Cannon  of  Mardrogat,  the  informer.  The  sufferings  of  his 
family  were  also  grievous.  In  1677  his  punishment  was  relaxed  and 
liberty  allowed  to  him.  He  was  once  more  taken  and  thrown  into 
Glasgow  Tolbooth,  from  which  he  was  rescued  by  the  people,  when 
a  g-reat  fire  broke  out  in  Glasgow.  After  consoling  himself  with  the 
society  and  sermons  of  the  hill-preachers  till  August  1678,  he  saw  the 
prudence  of  withdrawing  to  Utrecht,  where  he  died  in  1680.* 

Donaldson  of  Very  mercilcss  was  the  action  of  the  authorities  in  the  case  of 

agety.  Donaldson,  the  model  minister  of  Dalgety,  at  this  time  resident  in 

Inverkeithing.  For  daring  to  have  a  service  in  his  own  house  for  his 
family  and  friends,  Donaldson,  an  old  man,  was  carried  from  his  bed 
to  Linlithgow  prison  and  immured  there  for  a  year  without  being 
prosecuted.* 

Exiles  in  Not    Satisfied   with    harassing    his    subjects    at   home,    the    King 

molested  them  abroad,  first  sending  a  communication,  and  then  Sir 
William  Temple,  to  the  Court  of  Holland  to  demand  the  expulsion  of 
the  Scots  exiles.  Colonel  Wallace,  and  the  ministers,  MacWard  and 
Brown.      This   the    States  declined   to  do,   and   at  the  same  time 

'  Wodrow,  ii.  342.  ^  Ibid.,  335. 

'  Ibid.,  330,  331,  361  ;  M'Crie,  VeiMt,  423.  "i  Wodrow,  ii.  343. 


Ilollanci. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       259 

testified  that  the  three  Scots  had  been  good  and  faithful  citizens,  who 
had  proved  their  '  zeal  and  affection  for  the  advancement  of  the  truth.'' 

With  all  these  hardships  and  sufferings  on  the  part  of  a  large  Assaults  on 
section  of  the   people,   one   is  surprised   to  find   so   few  records   of''^"' 

^       ^      '  tr  ministers. 

reprisals  or  revenge  taken  upon  the  persons  or  property  of  those 
blamable  for  the  almost  universal  coercion  and  its  baleful  results. 
Henry  Knox,  Episcopal  incumbent  in  Dunscore,  complained  that  on 
the  28th  December  six  or  seven  persons  did  burglariously  invade  his 
manse  and,  after  maltreating  him  and  his  wife,  stole  his  furniture. 
Somewhat  similar  assaults  took  place  at  Gargunnock  and  Abbotsrule, 
but  no  particular  sect  of  the  dissenters  is  specified  as  the  burglars, 
who,  after  all,  may  have  been  the  too  common  dissenters  from  the 
principles  of  honesty.  The  ministers  got  compensation.  The  heritors 
were  summoned  to  the  Council  and  ordered  to  assess  themselves  in 
5000  and  6000  merks  respectively  for  the  ministers  of  Dunscore  and 
Gargunnock. - 

The  reader  would  be  surfeited  by  a  hundredth  part  of  the  record 
of  the  activities  of  the  servants  of  the  Crown  in  carrying  out  Lauder- 
dale's policy  for  stamping  out  disregard  for  the  law  by  exhausting  the 
resources  of  suspects,  who  at  this  time  were  reckoned  to  be  seven- 
teen thousand  in  number.' 

Early  in  the  year  1677,  a  convention  of  Presbyterian  ministers  of  Assembly  of 
different  parties  met  in   Edinburgh  to  discuss  the  situation  and  to  parUes'Te?? 
consider  terms  of  union  of  indulged  and  non-indulged,  so  that  peace 
might    prevail    among    the    nonconformists.       Blackadder    proposed 
fasting  and  humiliation  for  the  sin  of  Erastianism  as  the  first  step,  a 
suggestion  disagreeable  to  a  section  that  would  have  deposed  Wel- 
wood,    Cameron,    and    a    third    preacher,    probably    Kid,    for    their 
extreme    views    on   separation    from    the    indulged.       Welwood    and 
Cameron  declined  the  jurisdiction  of  this  irregular  assembly  at  the 
time.     One  result  of  the  conference  was  the  expression  of  a  general 
feeling  that   indulged  and  non-indulged  should   work   harmoniously 

'  M'Crie,  VeiU/i,  367  ;  VVodrow,  ii.  344. 

'  Wodrow,  ii.  341.  '  Dodds,  Ft/iy  years,  209. 


?6o 


THE  COVENANTERS 


James  Fraser 
of  Brea. 


Fraser's 
opinions. 


together,  preaching  where  occasion  offered,  and  that  ministers  should 
not  be  ordained  to  congregations  which  were  not  in  a  position  to  give 
a  call  and    make    proper  provision   for  their  pastors.     The  fugitive 
missioners  were  thus  discounted.'     Differences  had  separated  parties 
too  far  to  allow  a  millennial  concord  to  be  struck  at  a  single  conference. 
At  the  end  of  January  another  famous  field-preacher  was  in  the 
toils.     This  outlaw,  James  Fraser,  son  of  Sir  James  Fraser  of  Brea, 
of  noble  extraction,  born  in    1639,   was  attracted  to  the  side  of  the 
persecuted  after  his  conversion,  and  considered  it  his  duty  to  take 
licence  from  the  nonconformists  in  1670.      In  his  Memoirs,  one  of  the 
most  extraordinary  products  of  this  age,  he  narrates  how,  after  he 
married  a  pious  widow,  who  died  in  1676,  the  Bishop  of  Moray  per- 
secuted him  out  of  pique.      He  took  to  field-preaching,  and,  ignoring 
citations,  was  denounced  and  intercommuned.    Through  the  treachery 
of  a  maidservant  he  was  apprehended  in  the  house  of  a  relative  in 
Edinburgh  during  family  worship,  on  Sabbath  night,   28th  January. 
Next  day   Sharp  and    Hatton,    in   Council,   tried    to    trap  him   into 
admissions   punishable   by  death.      He  was  wary.     They  sentenced 
him  to  the  Bass,  where  he  arrived,  along  with  James  Mitchell,  on  ist 
February."     His  experiences  as  recorded  afford  a  very  painful  picture 
of  prison  life  on  the  Bass — petty  tyrannies,  bad  food  and  worse  water, 
oatmeal  mixed  with  foul  water  or  melted  snow  and  dry  fish,  vindictive 
usage,   gifts  stolen,    warders    blaspheming   in  order    to    irritate,    de- 
bauching the  female  servants  and  blaming  the  pious  prisoners,  and 
other    horrors.^      During    his    stay  here    for    two    years   and   a    half 
Fraser  found   leisure   to  study  and   write  a    Treatise  on  Justifying 
Faith,  which  maintained  novel  and  uncommon  views  on  the  subject. 
These  becomino-  known  to  his  friends  gave  rise  to  much  dissatisfac- 
tion  and  disputation  long  before  the  work  was  published.     Fraser's 
absurd  conclusion  was  that  Christ  had  died  for  all — for  the  elect  that 
they  might  obtain  superlative  blessedness,  and  also  for  the  reprobate 
that  they   might  justly   receive  a  more   awful  judgment.      The  re- 


'  Six  Saints,  i.  208  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  346. 

^  Fraser,  Memoirs:  Select  Biog.,  ii.  81-370. 


^  Ibid.,  344. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       261 

suscitation  of  Eraser's  opinions  by  some  ministers  in  the  Cameronian 
and  Antiburgher  denominations  in  the  seventeenth  century  gave  rise  to 
angry  debates  and  resulted  in  the  deposition  of  one  disciple.  Eraser  was 
liberated  in  August  1679  on  a  bond,  but  his  troubles  were  not  over/ 

Confined  in  the  rock-prison  at  the  same  time  as  Peden  and  Eraser  Prisoners  on 
were  James  Drummond,  chaplain  to  the  Marchioness  01  Argyll, 
Patrick  Anderson,  minister  of  Walston,  Hog,  minister  of  Kiltearn, 
John  M'Gilligen,  minister  of  Fodderty,  Robert  Traill,  minister  at 
Cranbrook,  John  Law,  minister  of  Campsie,  John  Macaulay,  Robert 
Ross,  and  William  Bell,  three  preachers,  and  George  Scot  from 
Scotstarvet,  at  first  as  stiff  a  lay  Covenanter  as  any,  but  latterly  the 
recalcitrant  receiver  of  a  shipload  of  banished  fellow-conventiclers." 

Blackadder  and  Welsh,  accompanied  by  their  bodyguard,  marched 
about  on  their  rousing  mission.  The  former  left  a  graphic  descrip- 
tion of  an  immense  conventicle  at  Eckford  in  Teviotdale,  where 
Welsh,  Riddell,  Dickson,  Rae,  and  he  officiated.'  It  is  a  pity  to 
mutilate  the  exquisite  story  by  an  epitomised  paraphrase.  A  multi- 
tude from  all  quarters  swarmed  on  to  a  mead  through  which  the 
Whitadder  flows.     On  preparation  day,  Saturday,  tokens  were  given  a  sacramental 

11  J  conventicle. 

to  mtendmg  communicants.  On  Sabbath  morn  three  tables,  covered 
with  linen  cloths,  bore  the  Communion  cups  and  elements.  A  bright 
sun  glorified  a  cloudless  blue  sky.  The  slopes  around  were  clustered 
with  over  three  thousand  believers  waiting  their  turn  to  partake 
of  the  holy  food.  Though  the  God  of  Jacob  was  still  their  refuge, 
these  hunted  Christians  had  a  fence  of  steel  in  the  hands  of  horse- 
men round  the  feast,  sentinels  on  the  hilltops,  and  mounted  scouts 
patrolling  the  vicinity.  They  expected  the  rash  young  Earl  of 
Home  and  the  Berwick  militia  to  keep  Home's  threat  to  ride  in  and 
'  make  their  horses  drink  the  communion  wine  and  trample  the  sacred 
elements  under  foot.'  Aristocratic  elders  served  the  tables.  Dickson's 
theme  was  '  The  Lord  will  provide.'     '  Neither  shall  the  Covenant  of 

'  Hutchison,  The  Reformed  Presbyterian  Church  in  Scotland,  195  (Edin.,  1893). 
'^  In  transporting  them  to  the  plantations,  Scot  and  his  wife  perished  at  sea :  of.  M'Crie 
The  Bass  Rock,  169. 

^  Bliickadder,  Atetn.,  183-9  ;  Blackadder  wore  a  Highland  plaid  to  conceal  his  identity. 


262  THE  COVENANTERS 

My  peace  be  removed.'  was  Blackadder's  consoling  subject  next  day.^ 
In  such  inspiring  circumstances  the  rapturous  host  saw  Heaven's 
King  reflected  in  the  beauty  of  hoUness  upon  them,  and  as  each  night 
they  retired  to  their  various  resting-places  guarded  by  armed  men, 
they  experienced  a  sense  of  Divine  Power  '  encamping  round  about 
them.'  Their  earthly  ruler  was  forgotten.  In  the  middle  of  June 
Captain  Buchan  captured  eighteen  persons  holding  a  conventicle  at 
Culross  with  a  faith  which  disdained  precautions."  For  releasing  the 
prisoners  the  too  lenient  magistrates  of  Culross  got  into  trouble. 

Lauderdale,  having  complained  to  the  King  of  the  number  and 
insolence  of  the  conventicles,  received  the  King's  authority  for  seizing 
the  principal  ministers  and  laymen,  and  bringing  them  to  condign 
punishment.  If  he  had  not  local  forces  to  effect  this,  he  was  to 
Conventicle  temporise  until  succour  should  come  from  Ireland.^  One  of  these 
conventicles  was  held  in  the  parish  of  Girvan  under  the  presidency 
of  Welsh  and  other  four  preachers  on  21st  October.  There  seven 
thousand  persons  assembled  and  two  thousand  took  the  communion, 
after  having  engaged  to  abjure  the  orthodox  clergy  and  to  '  pursue 
the  ends  of  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant.'  The  Government 
spy  also  reported  to  Lauderdale  that  Welsh  not  only  preached  rank 
treason,  but  presided  over  a  Presbytery  that  made  cautious  prepara- 
tions for  a  rising  and  a  rabbling  of  the  clergy.*  In  order  to  quell 
this  incipient  rebellion  Lauderdale  made  arrangements  in  December 
with  Viscount  Granard  to  hold  himself  in  readiness  to  transport  horse, 
foot,  and  artillery  into  Galloway  on  demand.  Instructions  for  hunting 
down  Scottish  nonconformists  led  to  the  apprehension  of  William 
Douglas,  a  preacher.^  Douglas  was  betrayed  in  Belfast  by  Roderick 
Mansell,  a  Government  spy:  and  of  both  these  worthies  Lord  Granard 
wrote  :  '  Douglas  is  a  mountebank  and  almost  as  great  a  knave  as  his 
prompter  Mansel,  who  has  treated  me  with  so  many  and  so  great 
aspersions  that  I  must  fly  to  your  Grace's  justice  for  reparation.'^ 

'  Genesis  xxii.  14  ;  Isaiah  liv.  lo.  -  VVodrow,  ii.  363. 

^  Coventry  to  Lauderdale,  19th  November  1677  :  Ormonde  MSS.,  iv.  62. 

*  Jbid.,  69.  0  Ibid.,  75,  88.  "^  /bid.,  94. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       263 

Welsh  and  others  held  a  great  conventicle  at  Maybole,  which  had  Conventicle 
a  more  practical  consequence.  According  to  a  Government  report  ^' '  ^y^oie- 
'  a  great  many  swords  were  sold '  at  the  autumn  fair  in  Maybole, 
because  it  was  determined  that  the  people  should  rise  if  they  were 
further  provoked.^  From  a  spy,  the  Government  had  information 
of  a  similar  character,  which  Lauderdale  judiciously  forwarded  to 
Hamilton,  who  was  suspected  of  complicity  with  the  rebels.  The 
information  bore  that  the  hillmen,  in  October  1676,  had  signed  a 
paper  asserting  it  to  be  lawful  and  agreeable  to  the  subscribers  to 
take  up  arms — their  likeliest  leader  being  Hamilton  ;  and  that  early 
in  1677  arms  had  been  imported  from  Holland  and  concealed,  for 
which  subscriptions  in  London  had  been  raised.-  Hamilton  was  an 
opportunist  and  not  strictly  veracious  ;  and  in  these  uncertain  days  it 
is  not  surprising  to  find  the  Crown  relieving  him  of  his  commission  in 
the  militia.     A  deeper  estrangement  from  Lauderdale  was  the  result. 

Long  before  Cameron's  day  '  some  hotheads  were  for  taking  the 
sword  and  redeeming  of  themselves  from  the  hands  of  oppressors,' 
but  these  spirited  Scots  appear  to  have  been  kept  in  check  by  the 
calmer  counsels  of  men  of  the  type  of  Eraser,  who  considered  retalia- 
tion unwarrantable.^ 

Lauderdale  again  visited  Scotland  in  the  summer  of  1677.  His  Lauderdale 
intriguing  wife  had  one  daughter  marrying  Lome  and  another  ready  to  '"  S'^°"^"<^' 
be  'a  forced  cast  upon  Atholl.'  The  great  man's  influence  was  soon 
felt.  That  the  malcontents  might  be  thrown  off  their  guard  a  third 
Indulgence  was  mooted.^  A  hard  case  was  that  of  Sir  Alexander 
Bruce  of  Broomhall,  a  conformist,  too  considerate  to  his  tenantry, 
who  in  July  was  fined  in  ^100  for  the  conventicling  of  his  tenantry, 
whom  he  had  not  bound  over.® 

On  2nd  August  the  Council  published  the  proclamation  of  8th 
June  1674  in  more  stringent  terms,  demanding  a  bond  from  both 
proprietors  and  tenants  subscribed  by  the  former.*^     The  heritors  of 

1  Rec.  Off.,  State  Papers  (Charles  ll.),  397,  398  :  5th  November  1677. 

2  Perth  to  Hamihon  :  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  xi.  App.  vi.  156. 

3  Select  Biog.,  ii.  325,  326.  -i  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  xv.  viii.  224,  226. 
^  Fountainhall,  Hist.  Not.,  i.  168  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  360.  "  Wodrow,  ii.  364. 


264 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Heritors 
oppose  the 
policy  of  the 
Crown. 


Sir  George 
Mackenzie  of 
Rosehaugh. 


Ayr,  met  in  conference,  Loudoun  presiding,  resolved  to  inform  the 
Council  that  the  demand  was  impracticable,  and  that  leniency  was  the 
only  cure  of  the  disorders.  The  heritors  of  Hamilton  took  a  similar 
stand.  Hamilton  himself  informed  Queensberry  that  the  Act  was 
'hardly  practicable.' '  In  August  about  forty  ministers,  indulged  and 
non-indulged,  were  summoned  for  breach  of  the  regulations  and  Acts, 
but  only  one  is  recorded  to  have  compeared  and  defended  himself. 
He  acknowledged  attending  a  conventicle  in  his  own  parish  in  order 
to  challenge  its  legality.  The  plea  was  successful  and  the  suspect 
was  dismissed." 

In  October  the  Council  ordered  the  release  of  eight  prisoners, 
including  Peden,  Hog,  M'Gilligen,  Ker  of  Kersland,  and  Eraser  of 
Brea,  on  certain  conditions — Peden  being  ordered  into  exile.  There 
were  relays  of  prisoners  to  take  their  places  in  the  noisome  vaults." 
Sir  John  Nisbet  was  forced  to  resign  the  office  of  Lord  Advocate, 
and  George  Mackenzie,  on  23rd  August  1677,  got  his  place* — 

'  By  merit  raised  to  that  bad  eminence.' 

A  recent  writer  has  well  classed  him  with  sanguinary  Jeffreys  and 
'Weir  of  Hermiston'  as  one  of  'The  Terrors  of  the  Law.'''  Mac- 
kenzie had  distinguished  himself  as  a  fearless  pleader,  even  daring  to 
oppose  Lauderdale,  who  afterwards  showed  a  preference  for  Mac- 
kenzie for  reasons  of  state  more  probably  than  of  love.  A  fiery 
temper,  a  bold,  biting  tongue,  absolutist  views,  and  expressed  loyalty 
qualified  this  young  advocate  for  the  post  of  adviser  and  draughtsman 
of  laws  for  the  party  of  extermination.  He  began  by  emptying  the 
crowded  jails  of  those  either  too  poor  or  too  conscientious  to  bribe  his 
predecessor.  His  method  was  not  always  just  or  merciful.  Two 
men,  who  had  been  confined  for  six  years  untried,  he  brought  to  the 
gallows  on  the  most  nebulous  evidence.*^  He  promptly  earned  his 
nickname — '  The  Bluidy  Mackenzie.' 

1  Hist.  MSS.  Cotn.  Rep.,  XV.  viii.  222  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  368. 

"  Wodrow,  ii.  348.  ^  Ibid.,  356,  361, 

*  Omond,  Lord  Advocates,  ii.  200-34;  Hist.  Not.,  i.  174. 

<>  Francis  Watt,  The  Terrors  of  the  Law,  1902.  "  Omond,  213  ;  Hist.  Not.,  i.  180. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       265 

Early  in  October,  an  affair  occurred  whose  importance  was  not  Affair  at 
underestimated  by  those  seeking  fresh  incitements  to  suppress  the 
nonconformists.  The  outlawed  John  Balfour  of  Kinloch  stole  home 
to  meet  his  friend  and  neighbour,  Alexander  Hamilton  of  Kinkel, 
Robert  Hamilton,  son  of  Sir  Thomas  Hamilton  of  Preston,  and  other 
conventiclers.  Captain  Carstairs  and  a  dozen  troopers  rode  up  to 
capture  the  meeting.  A  boisterous  Irish  soldier,  called  Garret,  took 
a  trial  shot,  to  which  the  defenders  replied  by  a  volley  which 
brought  down  Garret  and  put  his  comrades  to  flight.'  The  episode 
was  exaggerated  to  the  injury  of  those  molested.  As  a  corrective 
to  these  rumours,  Hamilton  informed  Oueensberry  that  'there  was 
onely  thrie  soldiers  that  were  beaten  and  disarmed."-  Carstairs  had 
a  similar  experience  of  deforcement  in  April  1678,  when  invading 
a  minister's  house  in  Kintore.  For  this  scuffle  the  two  Flemings 
of  Balbuthy,  elder  and  younger,  were  tried  and  acquitted."  These 
attacks  irritated  an  already  nervous  and  retaliatory  peasantry,  and  at 
the  same  time  created  periodic  hysteria  in  official  circles.  In  October  Hysteria  in 
there  was  an  alarm  in  Edinburgh  over  the  news  invented  by  the  Earl  o"^"^'  ""^"^'^s, 

&  -'in  1677. 

of  Nithsdale  and  coloured  by  the  bishops,  that  the  westland  Whigs, 
armed  to  the  teeth,  and  equipped  with  Irish  horses,  were  on  the  eve 
of  rising.  Dundonald  informed  Lauderdale  that  the  manse  of  Tor- 
bolton  had  been  forced  and  the  minister  threatened  with  death  if  he 
preached  again.*  The  Council  instructed  Glencairn,  Dundonald,  and 
Ross  to  convene  the  gentlemen  of  Ayr  and  Renfrew,  to  take  order 
for  the  extinction  of  factious  courses  in  '  the  great  seminaries  of 
rebellion  '  in  these  counties.  The  gentlemen  met  in  Irvine  on  2nd 
November,  and  came  to  three  resolutions :  that  it  was  not  within  the 
compass  of  their  power  to  suppress  conventicles  :  that  toleration  of 
Presbytery  alone  would  restore  peace :  that  the  toleration  must  be 
similar  to  that  granted  to  England  and  Ireland.* 

The  three  conveners  mutilated  the  manly  resolutions,  and  com- 

'  Wodrow,  ii.  371.  -  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep..,  xv.  viii.  225. 

^  Reg.  Sec.  Cone,  Dec,  4th  April  167S,  43. 

*  Laud.  Pap.,  iii.  88,  24th  October  1677.  '  Wodrow,  ii.  375. 

VOL.  II.  2  L 


266  THE  COVENANTERS 

pressed  them  into  a  phrase  :    'It  was  not  in  their  power  to  quiet  the 
disorders.'     Lord   Advocate    Mackenzie    made  a  worse  paraphrase  : 
'  That  the  peace  could  not  be  secured  without  abrogating  Episcopacy ' ; 
and  this  he  supplemented  by  an  even  worse  corollary  :   '  The  King  and 
Council  considered  this  as  a  sacrificing  the  Laws  to  the  Humours  and 
Fashions  of  private  men  .  .   .  and  therefore  the    Highlanders  were 
sent  in  to  secure  the  Peace.' '     Lauderdale  informed  the  King  that 
the  Highland  chieftains  were  ready  to  march  with  their  redshanks  to 
nip  the  rebellion  in  the  bud,  and  he  asked  for  instructions." 
Scotiand  under        The    King    replied,    nth    December,    placing    Scotland    under 
martid  law  in  j^^^j-jij^i  j^^^  ^nd,  for  the  protection  of  the  Crown  and  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church,  authorising  a  muster  of  English  troops  on  the  Borders 
as  well  as  on  the  northern  shores  of  Ireland,  a  gathering  of  the  High- 
landers at  Stirling,  the  embodiment  of  the  militia,  the  disarmament 
of  the  disaffected,  and  other  military  steps.     The  instructions  issued 
by  the  Council   simply   condensed  the    old    repressive  statutes   and 
handed  over  army,  magistrates,  and  subjects  to  the  mercy  of  a  Com- 
mittee,  consisting   of  Atholl,    Mar,    Glencairn,    Murray,    Linlithgow, 
Perth,  Wigtown,    Strathmore,   Airlie,  Caithness,  and  Ross,  with  full 
powers,   any   five   to   be   a   quorum,  who   were  ordered   to    meet    in 
Glasgow   on    26th   January.     The  day  after  Christmas,   the  '  Com- 
mission  for  raising   the   Highlanders'  was  signed.'^     Hamilton  ex- 
pressed the  view  then  held  that  this  was  a  royal  charter  for  the 
plantation   of  the    Lowlands   by  Gaels.*     It  was   nothing  short  of  a 
licence   to  freebooters   to   devour  at  pleasure  and  be  indemnified  if 
blood  were  spilt,  and  of  a  charge  to  bankrupts  in  uniform  to  conduct 
an  unholy  crusade.     Worse  still,  the  right  reverend  fathers  in  God — 
the  bishops — met  and  formulated  ten  suggestions  for  the  suppression 
of  conventicles,  which,  for  drastic   rigour,  better  became  a  cave  of 
bandits    than  a  conclave   of  religious  men,    the  cruelest  suggestion 
being,  that  the  forces  should  '  move  slowly.'  ^ 

»   Vindication,  12.  -  Mackenzie,  iW««o/rj,  329. 

3   IVodrow  MSS.  (Advocates'  Library),  xcix. ;  Wodrow,  ii.  376,  377,  379,  i^T- 
<  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  xv.  viii.  230.  '  Laud.  Pap.,  iii.  95. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       267 

The  tiery  cross  soon  sped  among  the  loyal  clans.  The  Lowlands  Muster  of 
were  the  Eldorado  of  the  Gaels.  They  termed  the  Whigs  '  Figs,'  ^os^  1678^" 
probably  also  recalling  the  sweetest  fruit  they  knew  of — an  article  of 
commerce  then  heavily  taxed. ^  Joy  prevailed  in  all  quarters  favourable 
to  Prelacy  ;  but  while  visions  of  wealth  glorified  the  castles  and  shiel- 
ings of  the  north,  a  horror  of  the  naked  barbarians  struck  the  southern 
Whigs  and  people  generally.  The  isolated  clergy  complained  that 
the  upper  classes  were  migrating  to  the  Capital.  A  ravenous  joy 
possessed  the  associates  of  Lauderdale,  expectant  of  forfeitures,  '  so 
that  on  Valentine's  Day,  instead  of  drawing  mistresses,  they  drew 
estates.'"  Oueensberry  informed  Hamilton  that  'the  offishers  off  the 
whoill  [militia  regiment  of  Dumfries]  ar  the  scum  of  the  countray 
and  all  beggars  save  2  or  3,  and  most  overjoyt  att  the  honourabell 
imployment.'^  The  sordid  vision  came  to  Captain  John  Graham  of 
Claverhouse  and  Claypots,  in  Holland,  and  he,  having  resigned  his 
commission  in  the  Dutch  army  in  December  1677,  also  hastened  home, 
hoping  to  cover  Claverhouse  with  glory  and  to  fill  Claypots  with 
Whig  gold.  Sir  Walter  Scott  probably  had  good  reasons  for  making  Return  of 
Edith  Bellenden  say  of  Claverhouse,  '  "  Root-and-branch  work  "  is  the  ^^^l"  °"^^* 
mildest  of  his  expressions.  The  unhappy  Primate  was  his  intimate 
friend  and  early  patron.'  ^  More  patriotic,  or  at  least  more  sympathetic, 
citizens  were  deserting  the  woeful  country.  Lauderdale  promptly 
counteracted  the  threatened  exodus  to  London  of  nobles  and  persons 
of  property,  who  thus  hoped  to  enlighten  the  King  and  his  advisers 
regarding  the  true  state  of  affairs.  On  3rd  January,  Lauderdale, 
President  of  the  Council,  published  a  proclamation  prohibiting  all  men 
between  sixteen  and  sixty  years  of  age  leaving  the  kingdom  without 
a  licence,  on  pain  of  treason.^  To  test  the  loyalty  of  Hamilton,  orders 
were  sent  to  the  gentlemen  of  Lanarkshire  to  muster  when  required 
by  the  Committee.*'  After  Rothes  got  the  heritors  of  Fife  to  sign  the 
bond  obliging  all  the  inhabitants  to  keep  the  peace,  Lauderdale  re- 
turned the  instrument  along  with  the  draft  of  a  more  stringent  Bond 

'  M'Crie,  ^eiUA,  519.  2  Burnet,  ii.  146.  '  //t'st.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  XI.  vi.  161. 

*  Old  Mortality,  chap.  x.  »  Rc^.  See.  Cone,  Acta,  554.  "  Wodrow,  ii.  381. 


>6S 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Protests  of 
loyal  heritors 
against  '  The 
Black  Bond.' 


Lauderdale's 
oath. 


The  Black 
Bond. 


binding  them  to  refrain  from  intercourse  with  the  nonconformists,  and 
to  apprehend  them.'  The  Ayrshire  heritors  sent  a  deputation  to  the 
Privy  Council  to  assure  them  of  the  quietness  of  the  shire,  the  absence 
of  conventicles  in  those  parishes  provided  with  indulged  ministers, 
their  own  personal  loyalty,  and  the  impropriety  of  unloosing  '  so 
inhumane  and  barbarous  a  crew '  of  spoilers  upon  the  land.^  Implacable 
Lauderdale  refused  to  see  the  deputation.  With  Shylock  he  might 
say,  '  I  would  have  my  bond.'  The  influence  of  Hamilton,  Blantyre, 
and  Carmichael  was  felt  in  Lanarkshire,  where  of  the  2900  heritors  and 
feuars  all,  save  nineteen,  refused  to  take  the  bond  until  they  were 
coerced  by  the  militia.  Oueensberry  informed  Hamilton  that  it  was 
otherwise  in  Dumfriesshire,  where  all,  '  save  some  few  pitifull  persons 
inconsiderable  both  as  to  parts  and  interests,'  had  signed.  Although 
Queensberry  had  not  yet  subscribed,  he  had  ordered  the  imprison- 
ment and  removal  of  his  offending  tenantry,  of  whom  he  wrote,  '  its 
remarkable  most  off  thes  ar  Annandale  people  and  knou  no  moir  off 
religion  or  civell  deportment  than  bruts.'^  When  Lauderdale  learned 
how  '  the  gentlemen  looked  on  and  would  no  nothing '  to  make  the 
latest  legislation  effective,  according  to  Burnet,  '  this  put  Duke 
Lauderdale  in  such  a  frenzy,  that  at  Council  table  he  made  bare  his 
arm  above  his  elbow,  and  swore  by  Jehovah  he  would  make  them  all 
enter  those  bonds.'* 

These  submissions  grudgingly  given  were  merely  nominal,  and 
expressive  of  the  universal  horror  at  the  thought  of  a  descent  of  '  the 
Irishes.'  In  May,  Queensberry  reported  that  hill-sermons  were  never 
so  numerous,  at  which  '  they  thunder  anathemas  against  the  blak- 
bonders  (as  they  call  us),  and  ane  maid  his  repentence  publicly 
Sunday  last  for  tacking 't,  befoir  Mr.  Welsh  wood  chrissen  his  child.'' 
To  the  consistent  Covenanter  The  Black  Bond  was  an  instrument  of 
Satan,  proving  the  infidelity  of  the  subscriber  to  God  and  Christ.* 

The  Highland  Host  mustered  at  Stirling  on  24th  January  1678. 

'  Wodrow,  ii.  382.  2  Ibid.,  388. 

'  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  xi.  vi.  159  ;  ,\v.  viii.  233  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  397. 

♦  Hist.,  ii.  145.  6  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  xi.  vi.  162. 

»  For  'Black  Bond  and  Highland  Host,'  cf.  Wodrow  MSS.,  .xxxvi.  (Rob.  iii.  3.  11.  17)- 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       269 

Increased    by   recrulars    and    militia,    and    equipped    with    artillery,  March  of  the 

111  ,      .   "  r  ^  ■        r  •  ,  Highlanders. 

shackles,  and  instruments  of  torture,  this  force  representative  ot 
heathenism  and  religion,  eight  thousand  strong,  marched  to  Glasgow 
and  Ayr  in  search  of  the  imaginary  foe.  Ploughmen  in  the  furrows 
saw  the  legalised  marauders  and  the  exterminating  Commission  pass 
by.  The  ingenious  Mackenzie  was  left  behind  to  fabricate  novel 
legislative  measures  couched  in  damnatory  language ;  and  truly 

'  That  crooked  Vulcan  will  the  bellows  blow 
Till  he  '11  set  all  on  fire.' 

Employers  were  now  discharged  from  receiving  servants  or  tenants 
who  had  not  taken  the  bond  ;  and  to  secure  the  public  peace  the 
strange  device  of  'law-burrows,'  or  caution  given  that  nothing  wrong 
would  be  done,  was  resorted  to.  Mackenzie,  in  vindicating  the 
Government,  declared  this  to  be  the  ordinary  surety  whereby  'any 
private  man  may  force  another  by  the  law  to  secure  him  against  all 
Prejudices  from  his  Men,  Tennents,  and  Servants,  and  others  of  his 
Command,  Out-hounding  and  Ratihabition.''  Those  who  refused  Refusers  of 
the  Black  Bond  were  required  to  give  pledges  that  they  and  all  their  g^^ 
dependents  would  keep  the  ecclesiastical  laws  on  pain  of  two  years' 
valued  rent."  To  these  unprecedented  demands  many  great  land- 
lords and  influential  citizens — Cassillis,  Loudoun,  Crawford,  Balmerino, 
Melville,  Newark,  Callendar,  Kilsyth,  Roxburgh,  Cochrane,  Cathcart, 
Bargany,  Cessnock,  Kilbirnie,  Montgomery,  and  others — refused  to 
yield,  and  were  denounced  as  traitors.  Nothing  was  left  to  chance. 
It  was  the  priestly  function  of  the  armed  Commission  to  pursue  every 
living  soul  into  a  state  of  revulsion  from  nonconformity.  The  clay- 
more would  produce  uniformity. 

The  Gaels  swept  over  south-west  Scotland  like  a  flood,  and  bore 
away  whatever  they  fancied.  Every  church  was  converted  into  an 
armoury  for  discarded  weapons,  and  the  graveyard  into  a  pound  for 
commandeered  horses  ;  every  cupboard  was  often  searched  and  every 

'    Vindication,  I2. 

'  Proclamations,  nth  Feb.  and  14th  Feb.  :  Aldis,  List,  21 13;  Wodrow,  ii.  396,  400. 


270  THE  COVENANTERS 

Effects  of  the  sheaf  devouied.^  Strange  to  relate,  the  Whigs  grew  facile  as  the 
the  Gaels.  Israelites  in  Egypt.  Goads  of  no  kind — torture  by  hustling,  blows, 
robbery,  arson,  match — availed  to  change  their  humour  and  resolution 
to  give  no  ground  for  justifying  the  brutal  policy  of  Lauderdale. 
The  unhindered  caterans  had  no  inducement  to  soil  their  blades 
by  cutting  throats.  There  is  no  authentic  record  of  atrocities  com- 
mitted, apart  from  the  inevitable  inconveniences  of  an  enemy's  visit. 
Alexander  Wedderburn,  minister  of  Kilmarnock,  was  badly  injured 
by  a  blow  from  a  Highlandman's  musket.  The  author  of  A  Hind 
Let  Loose  says  that  it  would  require  several  large  volumes  to  record 
their  barbarities ;  but  in  his  later  Short  Memorial,  the  charge  is 
minimised  by  the  omission  of  the  statement,  '  by  the  sword  of  these 
Burrios,'  when  he  repeats  this  record  :  '  Many  houses  were  then  left 
desolate  in  a  winter  flight,  many  lost  their  cattel  and  horses,  and 
some  in  seeking  to  recover  them  lost  their  lives,  by  the  sword  of 
these  Burrios.' "  Wodrow  published  a  statement  of  the  losses  incurred 
in  Ayrshire,  as  prepared  by  the  heritors  for  transmission  to  the  King, 
and  these  amounted  to  nearly  ^138,000  Scots.  He  also  reckoned 
that  ^200,000  Scots  might  represent  the  losses  in  Ayrshire  ;  and  from 
this  fact  one  can  imagine  what  the  total  '  sufferings '  in  the  disaffected 
area  must  have  been.  At  the  end  of  February,  the  Council  saw  the 
necessity  for  recalling  this  punitive  expedition,  and  the  Gaels  returned 
loaded  with  loot,  while  Airlie  and  Strathmore  were  credited  with 
securing  bags  of  money.^ 
King  Charles  The  King  in  a  letter  of  26th  March  indicated  approval  of  all  this 

the''e7editLn  Savagery.*  The  bold  Cassillis  first  complained  to  the  Duke  of 
Monmouth,  hoping  through  that  channel  to  reach  the  royal  ear 
before  he  personally  came  to  Court.  In  March,  Cassillis,  Hamilton, 
Roxburgh,  Haddington,  Atholl,  Perth,  some  other  nobles,  and  '  fifty 
gentlemen  of  quality,'  including  Sir  John  Cochrane  and  Lieutenant- 
General  Drummond,  went  up  to  London  to  complain  of  the  miseries 

'  Atholl  MSS.,  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  xii.  viii.  35  ;   Wodrow  AfSS.,  .\cix.  28. 
■■*  Hind,  190,  191  ;  Memorial,  12  ;  A  True  Narraiii'e  .  .  .   167S:  Published  by  Authority  ; 
Aldis,  List,  2143;  Wodrow,  ii.  442  note. 

'  Kirktou,  391.  '  Wodrow,  ii.  432. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       271 

of  Scotland.  Charles  would  at  first  neither  receive  the  petitions 
nor  the  petitioners.  He  sent  for  representatives  of  the  Council. 
Lauderdale  dispatched  Murray,  Collington,  and  Mackenzie  to  counter- 
act his  accusers.  Mackenzie  was  no  match  for  his  brilliant  rival, 
Lockhart.  The  King-  gave  the  petitioners  audience,  and  demanded 
their  indictment  in  writing.  They  were  not  to  be  caught  in  such  a 
snare,  and  refused.  Their  stand  augured  ill  for  Lauderdale.  But 
that  able  tactician  by  a  simple  method  outwitted  his  antagonists. 
He  persuaded  the  King  to  convene  the  Scots  Estates  on  26th  June, 
while  these  members  were  from  home,  and  then  cozened  the 
others  who  were  left,  who  outnumbered  the  Hamilton  party,  as 
five  to  one. 

The  King's  letter  to  the  Estates  praised  Lauderdale  for  his  Meeting  of 
fidelity.  The  Parliament  voted  supply  of  ;i^  1,800,000  Scots,  for  thejune'icys!' 
maintenance  of  authority  and  an  army — the  cess  to  be  payable  in  five 
years.  When  Parliament,  in  replying  to  the  King's  letter,  declared 
that  Lauderdale's  '  manadgment  of  affairs  in  this  convention  hath 
justifyed  your  Maiesties  choice  of  him,'  that  astute  diplomatist  had 
completely  outwitted  the  Whigs.  They  had  to  face  a  new  peril  on 
their  return,  for  Lauderdale  had  the  satisfaction  of  issuing  a  royal 
warrant  in  May  for  the  prosecution  of  murmurers  against  persons 
in  authority.^ 

Sharp  had  waited  long  enough  for  Mitchell's  blood.  He  induced 
Lauderdale  to  bring  the  prisoner  from  the  Bass  and  send  him  to 
the  gallows.^  The  Council,  6th  December,  instructed  Sir  George 
Mackenzie,  Mitchell's  former  counsel,  to  prosecute  him  afresh. 
The  accused  petitioned  for  counsel.  The  advocates,  remembering- 
Mackenzie's  dictum  at  Argyll's  trial,  that  the  defence  of  a  traitor 
was  treason,  refused  to  plead  until  they  were  licensed.  John  Ellis 
and  Lockhart  undertook  the  defence.  Sir  Archibald  Primrose  of 
Carrington,    deprived    of  the    post    of    Lord    Register,   now   Justice 

'   IJurnct,  ii.  147,  149  ;  Wodrow,  ii.  449,  453,  454,  490;  Kirkton,  393  ;  Aa.  Pari.  Scot.,  viii. 
213-30  ;  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  xiu.  ii.  49;  xv.  viii.  235,  236. 
-  Burnet,  ii.  138. 


272 


THE  COVENANTERS 


General,  with  five  judges,  occupied  the  bench.  Primrose  narrated 
Trial  of  James  to  Bumct  what  transpired.  The  trial  began  on  7th  January  with 
7th  January  th^  indictment  charging  Mitchell  with  feloniously  attempting  to 
1678.  injure,  demember,  and  murder  an  officer  of  the  Crown,  a  bishop,  and  a 

subject — offences  punishable  with  death  ;  and  further  with  associating 
with  traitors.'  To  be  even  with  intriguing  enemies,  who  had  arranged 
to  perjure  themselves  at  the  trial.  Primrose,  with  'a  most  exquisite 
malice,'  sent  to  the  counsel  for  the  defender  a  copy  of  the  pardon 
minuted  in  the  Council  Record.  Mitchell  refused  the  libel,  and 
renounced  his  extorted  confession.  Lockhart  forcibly  pleaded  that 
an  extra-judicial  confession  was  inadmissible  as  evidence.  A  long 
debate  took  place  over  the  relevancy  of  the  libel.  The  bench  held 
that  the  Lord  Advocate  had  proved  the  presumption  that  Mitchell 
had  attempted  assassination,  and  that  his  confession  was  judicial,  and 
could  not  be  retracted.  The  case  was  sent  to  a  jury.  The  box  con- 
tained selected  soldiers  and  Anti-Covenanters.-  Evidence  was  led. 
The  confession,  signed  by  Mitchell,  Rothes,  Primrose,  Nisbet,  and 
Hatton  was  produced.  It  was  pleaded  that  it  was  extorted  on  promise 
of  life.  According  to  Mackenzie's  own  work  on  the  criminal  law, 
'  a  confession  extorted  by  torture  is  in  no  law  sufficient.'  ^  Mackenzie, 
too,  had  seen  the  torture  and  compulsion.  Notwithstanding,  Rothes, 
Hatton,  Lauderdale,  Sharp,  one  after  another,  swore  that  they  neither 
gave  nor  heard  of  'any  assurance  to  the  pannell  for  his  life,  and  that 
the  pannell  never  sought  any  such  assurance.'  Rothes  went  further 
and  deponed,  '  any  expressions  in  any  paper  which  may  seem  to  infer 
anything  to  the  contrary,  ...  it  hath  been  insert  upon  some  mistake.'** 
This  was  severe  on  the  last  discarded  Lord  Advocate  and  the  Clerk 
of  Court. 

Lockhart  now  showed  his  hand.  He  produced  an  authentic  copy 
of  the  minute  and  demanded  the  production  of  the  original.  Not  to 
be  worsted,  Mackenzie  retorted  that  the  record  was  closed  ;  that  he 

1  Wodrow,  ii.  459  note;  Burnet,  ii.  140-3;  Hist.  Not.,  i.  182-6;  Mackenzie,  Memoirs, 
327-9;  M'Crie,  Bass,  71  ;  Cobbctt,  State  Trials,  vi.  1207-62,  1270;  Kirkton,  383  ;  Just.  I\ec., 
ii.  App.  307. 

■^  Hist.  Not.,  i.  186.  ^  Laws  and  Customs,  257.  ■*  Wodrnw,  ii.  469. 


Defences  of 
Mitchell. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       273 

was  not  bound  to  produce  evidence  for  his  opponents  ;  that  the  Lords 
of  Council  had  sworn  that  no  assurance  was  given  ;  and  that  none 
can  grant  remissions  except  the  King.  Lockhart,  however,  was  per- 
mitted to  read  the  document,  in  which  these  words  appeared  :  '  having 
reteired  a  part  with  one  of  the  s[ai]d  Committy  [^i.e.  Rothes]  He 
[Mitchell]  did  then  confesse  vpon  his  knees  he  was  the  person,  vpon 
assurance  given  him  by  one  of  the  Committy,  as  to  his  lyfe,  who  had 
warrand  from  the  Lord  Commissioner  and  Council!  to  give  the  same.'^ 
Nicoll  Sommervell,  brother-in-law  of  Mitchell,  offered  to  depone  in 
court  that  Sharp  promised  to  get  Mitchell  spared  if  Sommervell  went 
and  persuaded  him  to  confess.  Sharp  denied  this,  and  '  called  it  a 
villanous  lie.'^  Lauderdale  rose  in  court  and  menacingly  demanded 
if  the  object  of  the  defence  was  to  make  the  councillors  out  to  be  Perjury  of 
perjurers.^  The  judges,  cowed,  ruled  that  the  defence  was  too  late  ^^^^J 
in  asking  diligence,  and  that  the  alleged  assurance  was  nugatory 
owing  to  the  depositions  of  the  councillors.  The  court  adjourned 
for  the  night.  The  minutes  were  inspected  and  found  as  Lockhart 
alleged.  But  unable  to  withdraw  their  perjury,  they  tried  to  explain 
the  minute  as  a  promise  of  intercession.  On  loth  January,  the  jury 
returned  a  verdict  finding  Mitchell  guilty  as  libelled,  that  he  had 
made  a  confession,  but  that  there  was  no  proof  of  any  exculpation.* 
He  was  condemned  to  be  hanged  on  Friday,  i8th  January,  in  the 
Grassmarket,  and  his  goods  and  gear  to  be  escheat. 

Lauderdale  now  found  himself  in  a  quandary,  caused  by  the  fact  Dilemma  of 
that  the  Earl  of  Kincardine  had  in  his  possession  letters  from  Hatton, 
written  at  the  time  the  confession  and  promise  were  made,  bearing 
out  the  contention  of  Lockhart :  all  of  which  Lauderdale  knew  full  well 
and  of  which  he  had  been  reminded.  Consequently,  when  a  petition 
was  sent  to  the  Council  in  favour  of  the  doomed  man,  Lauderdale 
favoured  it.  But  Sharp,  not  to  be  cheated  of  his  quarry,  said  that 
such  a  pardon  would  be  a  further  invitation  to  assassination.  Ready 
with  an  impious  jest,  the  unfeeling  Lauderdale  retorted,  '  Let  Mitchell 

'  Heg:  Sec.  Cone..,  Acta,  June  1673-August  1678  ;  12th  March  1674,  pp.  63,  64. 

'  Wodrow,  ii.  471.  3  Ibid..,  iii.  162.  ^  Just.  Rec,  ii.  339. 

VOL.  II.  2  M 


274 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Execution  of 
Mitchell, 
iSth  January 
1678. 


glorify  God  in  the  Grassmarket.' '  The  lack  of  truthfulness,  honour, 
and  trustworthiness  in  these  high  officers  of  state  is  almost  incredible. 
Primrose  also  gloated  over  the  fact  that  in  this  trial  his  enemies  con- 
signed the  '  damnation  of  their  souls  in  his  hands.'  Sharp  had  already 
been  exposed.  Hatton,  afterwards  impeached  for  his  false  testimony 
by  William  Noble,  member  for  Dumbartonshire,  was  humiliated, 
and  fined. ^  In  his  own  writings  Mackenzie  left  proofs  of  his  unscrupu- 
lous and  untruthful  nature,  as  when  he  recorded  that  '  the  Registers 
of  Council  were  produced,  but  not  the  least  mark  of  a  promise  was 
made  to  appear  by  either.'*  In  his  Memoirs  he  also  avers  that 
'Sir  George  Lockhart  refused  to  speak  for  Mitchell,  being  unwilling 
to  offend  Lauderdale.'  *  With  similar  incorrectness  he  records  that 
'very  famous  witnesses  .  .  .  deposed  that  Mitchell  was  upon  a  new 
plot  to  kill  the  same  Archbishop';  and  that  he  died  'glorying  in 
his  crimes  and  recommending  to  others  the  szveetness  of  stick 
assassinations'  ^ 

Mitchell  spent  his  last  days  writing  his  Testimony,  and,  on  the 
morning  of  the  day  on  which  he  was  executed,  he  wrote  a  letter  in 
which  he  testified :  '  I  wish  heartily  that  this  my  poor  life  may 
put  an  end  to  the  persecution  of  the  true  members  of  Christ  in  this 
kingdom  ...  by  the  perfidious  prelates.' °  Through  a  crowd  of 
sympathising  women  Mitchell  was  taken  to  the  gibbet.  A  rescue  was 
expected,  and  Major  Johnson  kept  close  to  the  prisoner  to  stab  him 
if  the  attempt  was  made.  He  met  his  fate  bravely,  and  was  thrown 
over  the  ladder  amid  the  rolling  of  drums.  His  unmutilated  body  was 
removed  under  a  velvet  pall  to  the  Magdalen  Chapel.'  '  Thus  they 
hunted  this  poor  man  to  death,'  wrote  the  diarist  Fountainhall,  '  a 
prey  not  worthy  of  so  much  pains,  trouble,  and  obloquie  as  they 
incurred  by  it.'''  The  country  was  roused  and  incensed  by  the 
sensational  news  of  the  trial  and  martyrdom  of  Mitchell  and  of  the 
perjury    of    the    '  famous    witnesses,'    and    many   scribes   were    busy 

■  Burnet,  ii.  141.  '■'  Cohhtn,  State  Trials,  \\.  1262-70;  Scot.  Hist.  Misc.,  1^4. 

^  Vindication,  19.  ■•  Memoirs,  328.  ^   Vindication,  19. 

«  Wodrow,  ii.  473  ;  Laing MSS.,  269  ;  ibid.,  89,  fol.  99  ;  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.,  Xlll.  ii.  46. 
'  Hickes,  Ravillac  Rcdivivus,  53.  '  Hist.  Not.,  i.  185. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       275 

penning  and  circulating  poems,  pasquils,  satires,  and  papers  bringing 
contempt  upon  the  corrupt  Government,  and  giving  dark  warnings 
to  Sharp.'  Denunciation  of  the  murderers  of  Mitchell  was  made  an 
article  in  the  unwritten  creed  of  the  fugitive  hillmen.  The  accusation 
of  murder  was  hissed  into  the  ears  of  the  dying  Primate  on  Magus 
Moor. 

The  Privy  Council  never  rested  from  their  infamous  work.  The  Punishment 
noisome  jails  were  emptied  to  be  filled  again  with  prisoners,  including"  ^  '^^' 
children,  caught  at  the  ever-increasing  conventicles,  and  left  in  the 
cells  without  being  charged  till  health  gave  way.  Alexander  Ross 
came  to  Edinburgh  on  tutorial  business,  and  was  clapt  into  prison  with- 
out a  reason  for  four  months.^  James  Webster,  afterwards  minister 
in  Edinburgh,  for  holding  a  private  prayer  meeting  in  Dundee,  was 
kept  praying  in  jail  there  for  eighteen  months,  in  spite  of  the  in- 
demnity applicable  in  his  case.^  George  Hume  of  Kimmerghame  and 
his  wife,  Lady  Ayton,  were  imprisoned  for  three  months  in  the  Castle 
of  Edinburgh  for  being  married  by  an  unauthorised  minister.*  James 
Lawson,  a  boy  conventicler  of  fourteen  years  of  age,  was  liberated  ; 
Alexander  Anderson,  aged  sixteen,  was  banished.  These  were  not 
uncommon  cases.^  Ex-Provost  Sir  James  Stewart,  old  and  infirm, 
was  also  released. 

Consignments  of  men,  women,  and  boys  were  kept  waiting  their  Transportation 
turn  to  be  shipped  off  to  the  East  Indies  to  be  sold  as  slaves."  Peden  °  p"^°""^- 
was  one  of  sixty-nine  prisoners  marched  down  to  Leith  harbour  into 
the  'Si.  Michael  of  Scarborough,'  Captain  Edward  Johnston,  all 
consigned  to  Ralph  Williamson  in  London  for  transportation.  The 
prescient  Peden  declared  there  was  never  a  ship  built  that  would  take 
him  to  Virginia.  At  Gravesend,  Williamson  did  not  appear,  and  the 
skipper  of  the  convict  ship,  expecting  a  gang  of  rogues,  refused  to 
take  the  holy  men  off  Johnston's  hands.  The  latter  released  them, 
and  gaily  they  tramped  away  to  Scotland.' 

'  Laing  MSS.,  Mitchell's  Ghost  :  Mimes  Mitcheliani,  etc.,  Nos.  148,  149,  150,  151,  152. 
2  Wodrow,  ii.  475.  ■'  Ibid.,  484.  '  Ibid.,  480. 

''  Reg.  Sec.  Cone,  Dec,  178,  2nd  January  1679  !   Wodrow,  ii.  484.       ^  Hist.  Not.,  i.  204. 
'  Reg.  Sec.  Cone,  Dec,  172,  12th  December  1678  ;  Six  Saints,  52,  53. 


276 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Scuflle  at 
Whitekirk. 


Blackadder's 
conventicle  in 
Irongray 
parish. 


A  conventicle  on  the  hills  of  Whitekirk  on  5th  May  was  attacked 
by  Ensign  Maitland  and  some  soldiers  from  the  Bass,  who  were 
repelled,  leaving  one  of  their  number,  John  Hogg,  dead.  Of  some 
men  afterwards  apprehended,  James  Learmont,  a  chapman,  and 
William  Temple  were  tried  and  condemned,  the  former  to  be  hanged 
on  the  27th  September  in  the  Grassmarket  and  the  latter  to  be 
transported.^  Mackenzie,  with  his  usual  inaccuracy,  calls  the  man 
executed  'George,'  whereas  George  was  acquitted.  Learmont's 
defence  was  that  he  was  unarmed  and  innocent — a  plea  which  the 
Crown  met  with  the  charge  of  accession  to  murder.  This  incident 
gave  Mackenzie  ground  for  the  following  statement  in  his  Vindication  : 
'  As  to  the  sending  away  People  to  the  Plantations,  it  is  answered 
that  none  were  sent  away,  but  such  as  were  taken  at  Bothwell  Bridge 
or  in  Argyle's  Rebellion.'^  The  Council,  on  i6th  January  1679, 
informed  Lauderdale  that  several  were  shipped  to  the  plantations.* 

Among  notable  conventicles  held  in  1678  those  conducted  by 
Welsh  and  Blackadder  at  Meiklewood  and  Skeoch  Hill  were  remark- 
able for  numbers  and  for  fervour.  Blackadder  describes  the  march 
of  fully  armed  and  mounted  gentlemen  from  Lanarkshire  down 
Enterkin  Pass  into  Nithsdale  and  on  to  the  Vale  of  Cairn  or  Cluden 
in  Irongray,  near  Dumfries.  Fourteen  thousand  persons  assembled 
and  remained  for  three  days,  the  Communion  Season,  as  it  was  called. 
The  services  were  held  and  the  Sacraments  dispensed  in  the  lone, 
bracken-clad  amphitheatre  of  Skeoch  Hill,  where  on  a  slope  a  mass  of 
rough  stones,  still  visible,  formed  a  Communion-table  and  pulpit,  and 
four  rows  of  stones  afforded  seats  for  the  communicants.  While 
Blackadder,  Welsh,  Arnot,  and  Dickson  in  turn  lectured,  preached, 
and  dispensed  the  Bread  of  Life,  alert  sentinels  were  posted  on  every 
coign  of  vantage  to  guard  against  surprise ;  and  Earlston  at  the 
head  of  the  Galloway  Horse  stood  ready  for  every  emergency.  The 
timid  garrisons  from  afar  spied  the  convention,  which  was  too  strong 
to  be  disturbed.*     In  September  Colonel  Strother  requested  Lauder- 


'  Wodrow,  ii.  477-9  ;  AM.  MSS.,  23251,  fol.  96.         -  Pages  1 1,  20.  •'  Wodrow,  iii.  24. 

■*  Letter,  23rd  August  1678:  State  Papers  {Chax\ts  u.),y)t;  Blackadder,  i)/««oi>j,  197-203. 


SCHEMES  OF  LEIGHTON  AND  LAUDERDALE       277 

dale  to  send  troops  to  the  Borders  to  suppress  Welsh's  party  of  horse, 
which  had  lately  shot  his  cousin  Marly,  and  Carr  of  Cherrytrees,^  So 
far  north  as  Forgandenny,  Stewart  of  Ballechin  and  some  Highland 
soldiers  scattered  a  conventicle  and  shot  Andrew  Brodie,  wright,  near 
Culteuchar  Hill  in  October." 

Lauderdale  was  the  fountainhead  of  power,  and,  as  Dr.  Matthew 
M'Kail  at  the  time  graphically  wrote  :  '  In  judgment  a  dog  cannot 
move  his  tongue  against  him  ...  he  values  the  Episcopal  Clergy  as 
little  as  the  Presbyterians  when  it  comes  in  competition  with  the 
King's  supremacy.'  In  consequence  of  this,  self-defence  became  an 
article  of  an  outlaw's  faith,  and  M'Kail  reported,  'There  is  many  a 
man  in  Galloway,  if  he  hath  but  two  cows,  he  will  sell  one  cow  for 
a  pair  of  pistols.'  ^  The  saints  had  greater  need  of  them  than  ever. 
In  a  letter  from  Edinburgh  it  is  stated:  'There  is  invented  (as  is  invention  of 
alleged)  by  the  famous  bishop  of  Galloway  [Paterson]  a  certain  screw  "™'^"^"'*- 
to  couple  their  thumbs  together  by  pairs  to  disable  them  from  defensive 
or  offensive  war.'*  Worse  still,  on  23rd  September,  a  captain's 
commission  for  a  troop  of  horse  was  given  to  John  Graham  of  Claver- 
house,  and  soon  the  relentless  harriers  of  the  Whigs  would  be  in  the 
southern  fields.^ 

At  this  crisis  eight  bishops  met,  not  for  prayer,  but  to  commission 
the  Primate,  Sharp,  to  visit  Lauderdale  and  concert  still  sterner 
measures  for  annihilating  the  Covenanters. * 

'  15th  September  :  Add.  MSS.,  23251,  fol.  99. 

2  Martyr  Graves  of  Scotland.,  215. 

^  State  Papers  (Charles  11.),  396. 

^  M'Kail  to  Adams,  i6th  November  1678  :  State  Papers  (Charles  n.),  408. 

'  Tevry,  John  Graltam,  38. 

^  23rd  November  1678,  Letter  of  Sharp  to  Lauderdale  :  Laing  MSS.,  7S4. 


2-fi 


THE  COVENANTERS 


CHAPTER    XXV 


THE    EXIT    OF   SHARP 


Scotland's 
curse  in  1679. 


The  harrying 
of  William 
Veitch. 


Scotland  had  reached  the  nadir  of  degradation  when  Lauderdale 
occupied  the  vice-regal  chair,  when  Sharp  controlled  the  well-springs 
of  religion,  when  Paterson,  the  inventor  of  the  double  thumbscrews, 
was  advanced  to  the  Privy  Council  and  to  the  see  of  Edinburgh, 
when  mendacious  Mackenzie  pleaded  in  the  name  of  justice,  when 
heartless  Claverhouse  rode  out  to  guard  the  angel  of  peace  in  1679. 
While  King  Charles,  with  an  incredible  dissimulation,  himself  a  secret 
Papist,  sanctioned  the  persecution  of  his  co-religionists,  even  per- 
mitting death  to  overtake  a  sayer  of  mass,  and  allowed  the  people  to 
be  disturbed  over  popish  plots  and  the  dissolution  of  the  Cavalier 
Parliament,  the  best  Scottish  minds  were  occupied  with  thoughts  of 
salvation.^  '  There  are  more  converts  than  ever,'  wrote  Blackadder 
to  exiled  MacWard.  Armies  of  believers  met  all  winter.  If  there 
were  more  crowns  there  were  more  crosses.  The  Council  proclaimed 
the  Papists  and  Quakers,  but  refrained  from  prosecuting  them. 

The  case  of  William  Veitch  indicates  how  differently  Presbyterian 
dissenters  were  harried.^  Veitch,  an  unattached  probationer,  joined 
the  insurgents  in  1666,  and  being  dispatched  on  business,  just  missed 
the  fight  but  got  into  the  rout  after  Rullion  Green.  After  marvellous 
escapes  he  reached  England,  with  other  fugitives,  and  lurked  all 
winter  in  Newcastle  under  the  name  of  William  Johnston.  His  wife 
followed.  He  farmed  and  taught,  to  maintain  a  home,  ultimately 
settling  at  Stanton  near  Morpeth.  He  was  discovered  and  sent 
down    to    Edinburgh,    where    he   appeared    before    Sharp    and    the 


'  Hallam,  ii.  443. 


'^  The  Scots  Worthies  (Carslaw's  edition)  607-22. 


THE  EXIT  OF  SHARP  279 

Committee  of  Council  on  22nd  February  1679.^  His  farm  was  dis- 
plenished  and  thrown  into  lea,  to  obtain  support  for  his  wife  and  six 
children,  till  his  fate  was  sealed.  The  old  sentence  of  death  and 
forfeiture  stood  against  him.  The  Council  examined  him.  '  Have 
you  taken  the  Covenant  ? '  asked  Paterson,  now  Bishop  of  Edinburgh. 
The  prisoner  replied  :  '  All  that  see  me  at  this  honourable  board  may 
easily  perceive  that  I  was  not  capable  to  take  the  Covenant,  when 
you  and  the  other  ministers  of  Scotland  tendered  it.'  This  telling 
retort  sent  the  court  into  laughter.  They  ordered  him  to  the  Bass 
till  the  King  considered  his  case.  In  March  a  reply  came  that  Veitch 
was  to  be  tried,  or,  in  other  words,  to  be  hanged.  To  take  his  neck 
out  of  the  halter  great  influence  was  brought  to  bear  on  Lauderdale 
and  others.  Gilbert  Elliot  of  Craigend,  the  prisoner's  agent,  was 
sent  up  to  London  to  prosecute  the  petition,  and  he  was  able  to  make 
political  capital  out  of  the  case,  with  the  result  that  Veitch,  after 
various  sordid  intrigues  and  mean  subterfuges,  was  liberated."  Long- 
afterwards  when  Elliot,  then  Lord  Minto,  visited  Dumfries,  where 
Veitch  was  minister  after  the  Revolution,  Minto  facetiously  remarked 
to  Veitch  :  '  Ah,  Willie,  Willie,  had  it  no'  been  for  me,  the  pyets  had 
been  pyking  your  pate  on  the  Netherbow  Port.'  The  equally 
humorous  minister  retorted  :  '  Ah,  Gibbie,  Gibbie,  had  it  no'  been  for 
me,  ye  would  ha'e  been  yet  writting  papers  for  a  plack  the  page.'^ 

The  legal  procedure  for  detecting  a  Whig  or  Cameronian  had  stripping 
been  brought  to  such  a  pitch  of  perfection  that  a  suspicious  sneeze,  a 
diffident  reply,  or  a  misunderstood  reference  was  enough  to  imperil  a 
person's  liberty.  Another  kind  of  evidence  was  pitched  upon.  Wor- 
shippers returning  from  conventicles  were  to  be  stripped  as  far  as 
decency  permitted  and  the  clothing  retained  as  evidence.  Boys 
entering  college  or  beginning  trades  were  to  produce  certificates  of 
church  attendance.*  It  is  too  ludicrous  to  picture  'Bonnie  Dundee' 
and  his  slashing  dragoons  returning  from  a  Sunday  raid  with  their 
saddles  hung  with  the  coats  and  breeches  of  men  and  the  petticoats 

'  M'Crie,  Veitch,  94.  2  yj^^_  ^g^.  Cone,  Dec,  275,  31st  July  1679. 

'  Memoirs,  99  note.  *  Wodrow,  iii.  13,  14,  33. 


28o  THE  COVENANTERS 

and  shawls  of  women,  and  with  nosebags  full  of  Bibles  and  other 
oddments  of  the  chase.  Such  was  the  work  of  heroes  then !  The 
Council  blamed  the  three  preachers,  Welsh,  Semple,  and  Arnot,  for 
being  the  chief  promoters  of  disorder,  and  offered  9000  merks  (;^50o) 
for  Welsh,  and  2000  merks  each  for  Semple  and  Arnot,  as  well  as 
900  merks  for  any  vagrant  preacher.^  No  bribe  was  sufficient  to 
tempt  the  persecuted  to  betray  their  homeless  pastors. 
NewCommis-  That  the  laws  might  not  remain  inoperative,  the  Council,  on  27th 
Peace.  February,  added  many  names  to  the  Commission  of  the  Peace  in  all 

counties  between  the  Grampians  and  the  Cheviots,  and  also  appointed 
active  deputes  to  the  sheriffs  and  bailies  of  regality.  Several  of 
these  officials  had  already  graduated  in  wickedness,  and  were  yet  to 
blossom  red  in  the  'crimson  iniquity  of  the  time.'  Claverhouse  and 
Captain  Andrew  Bruce  of  Earlshall  were  commissioned  deputes  for 
Dumfries,  Annandale,  Wigtown,  and  Kirkcudbright.  Robert  Grierson 
of  Lag,  a  youth  of  twenty-two,  was  associated  with  them  in  Wigtown, 
and  Captain  John  Paterson  in  Kirkcudbright.'^  The  depute  for  Fife 
and  Kinross,  with  various  regalities,  was  the  notorious  William 
Carmichael  of  Easter  Thurston.  Their  courts  were  to  meet  weekly. 
Their  duty  was  to  extinguish  dissent  and  dissenters.  They  were  to 
be  paid  by  results.  Their  instructions  placed  every  one  in  their 
power.  Fines  exacted  from  those  not  heritors  were  to  go  to  these 
depute-sheriffs,  and  fines  taken  from  the  landed  proprietors  were  to 
fall  to  the  Crown  and  to  the  commissioners  in  equal  parts.^  If  the 
harriers  were  thus  tempted  to  plunder,  the  sufferers  were  sorely 
tempted  to  resist  and  retaliate. 

Blackadder,  an  invalid  hiding  in  a  seventh-story  garret  in 
Edinburgh,  records  a  scuffle  which  brought  more  tribulation  to  the 
persecuted.  One  night  in  March,  some  gentlemen  met  in  the  house 
of  Mrs.  Crawford  in  a  quiet  close  in  Edinburgh  in  order  to  transact 

'  Proclamation,  6th  February  ;  Aldis,  List,  2158  ;  Wodrow,  iii.  15. 

'^  William  Douglas  of  Morton  was  afterwards  associated  with  Claverhouse  in  Dumfries 
and  Annandale.     Lag  Castle,  Dunscore,  stands  eight  miles  north-west  of  Dumfries. 
2  Wodrow,  iii.  17-23  ;  '  Carmichael's  Warrant ' :    Wodrow  MSS..,  xliii.  26. 


THE  EXIT  OF  SHARP  281 

commercial  business.  A  mischievous  boy  informed  Major  J  ohnston  Drubbing  of 
of  the  City  Guard,  in  order  to  see  the  sport  of  that  zealous  breaker-  Johnston. 
up  of  conventicles  dispersing  an  orderly  gathering.  The  gentlemen 
resented  the  Major's  rude  intrusion,  and  drawing  weapons,  gave  him 
so  sound  a  drubbing  that  he  yelled,  '  For  Christ's  sake,  send  me  not 
to  hell,'  and  promised  that  he  would  never  disturb  a  meeting  again. 
One  of  his  soldiers  was  mortally  wounded  by  a  pistol-shot.  Richard 
Cameron's  brother,  Michael,  blamed  for  having  laid  the  trap  for 
Johnston,  was  one  of  the  flagellators,  for  whose  capture  the  Council 
offered  1000  merks  reward.  The  affront  was  further  avenged  by 
ordering  all  ministers  and  their  families  to  leave  the  city,  and 
the  magistrates  of  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow  were  commanded  to 
make  a  nightly  census  and  to  remove  all  visitors  beyond  their 
bounds.^ 

A  conventicle   held   at  Cummerhead,    Lesmahagow,   on  Sabbath  Fight  at 
30th   March,  ended   in  a  gallant  affair.      Lieutenant    Dalziel  and  sl  ^oihlilich" 
party  of  soldiers,   afraid    to  attack    the    main    body,    hovered    at    a  1679- 
distance  and  seized  stragglers,  stripping  some  women  and  detaining 
some   men.      The  Whigs,  marshalling    the  men  of  Strathaven  and 
Douglasdale,  boldly  demanded  the  release  of  the  prisoners,  and  in 
the  fray    Dalziel    and   seven    of  his    men  were  captured.       But  for 
the  interposition  of  William   Cassils,  a  Douglas  man,  Dalziel,  who 
was  wounded,  would  have  been  put  to  death,  and  for  this  generous 
act  Cassils  got  a  royal  pardon.^      Before  a  commission  got  time  to 
investigate  this  affair,  and  examine  eleven  prisoners  lying  in  Lanark 
jail,    another    outrage    took    place    near    Loudoun    Hill.       Early   onMurderat 
Sabbath  morning,   20th  April,  two  infantry  soldiers,  quartered  upon 
a  farmer  who  had  not  paid  his  cess,  were  roused  from  sleep.     One 
of  them  on  going  to  the   door  was  saluted   by  an   invitation,    quite 
unlike  a  Covenanter's  :  '  Come  out,  you  damned  rogues.'     A  shot  laid 
him  low.     A  second  shot  and  an  assault  also  mortally  wounded  his 
comrade,  who   was  able    to    identify  John   Scarlet    as    his   assailant. 

'  Wodrow,  iii.  31-3;  lilackadder,  Memoirs^  208. 
*  LatKi.  fap.,  iii.  162  ;  Wodrow,  iii.  33-6. 

VOL.   II.  2  N 


282 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Action  of 
heritors  in 
Ayr. 


Enormities  of 

Sheriff-depute 
Carmichael. 


Wodrow's  picture  of  this  villain  is  not  inviting.  This  Scarlet  was 
well  qualified  to  paint  the  country  red.  He  was  a  tinker,  confessedly 
illiterate,  a  soldier  dismissed  from  the  service,  an  unabashed  poly- 
gamist  who  wandered  about  the  country  with  his  harem  betimes,  and 
then  broke  into  piety,  probably  in  the  garb  of  a  Whig,  all  the  time 
he  was  a  Government  '  fly '  or  informer,  ready  to  swear  that  he  had 
been  one  of  Welsh's  bodyguard,  and  said  to  have  joined  the  body- 
guard of  Richard  Cameron.'  The  odium  of  the  murder  was  cast 
upon  the  Cameronian  party. 

The  landowners  of  Ayrshire  met  and  resolved  to  send  Lords 
Loudoun  and  Cochrane  and  Sir  John  Cochrane  as  a  deputation  to 
the  Council  to  express  detestation  of  these  armed  conventicles  and 
outrages,  which  they  attributed  to  the  influence  of  '  a  few  unsound, 
turbulent  and  hot-headed  preachers,  most  part  whereof  were  never 
ministers  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,'  whom  they  also  accused  of 
fostering  schism,  separation,  and  rebellion."  This  severe  criticism, 
from  a  quarter  where  sympathy  for  the  hunted  was  expected,  could 
not  fail  to  encourage  the  Council  to  proceed  with  their  authorisation 
to  the  whole  army  to  capture  or  kill  Welsh,  Cameron,  Kid,  Douglas, 
and  other  leaders  of  armed  field-worshippers.'  The  breach  between 
the  moderate  and  the  extreme  sections  of  the  Cameronians,  as  the  dis- 
affected generally  for  some  time  had  been  called,  was  being  made 
wider  every  time  the  various  leaders  met  to  discuss  the  situation. 
There  was  a  lack  of  unanimity  and  cohesion  among  these  parties.' 

The  atrocious  procedure  and  vile  acts  of  Carmichael,  depute  to 
the  Sheriff-principal  of  Fife,  the  Earl  of  Rothes,  were  no  longer 
endurable  by  the  wanderers  in  Fife,  whose  feelings  were  outraged 
by  the  tales  of  robberies,  rapes,  adulteries,  and  other  sins  of  the  flesh, 
as  well  as  of  torture  by  match  and  maltreating  of  women  and  children, 


'  Wodrow,  ill.  36,  37.  John  Scarlet,  described  as  of  '  Kirkness,  Portmoak,  tinker,' 
appeared  before  the  Lords  of  Justiciary  on  12th  May  1679,  and  again  on  31st  January  1681, 
when  he  was  sent  down  to  Cunningham  for  punishment  for  his  crimes  :  Book  of  Adjournal. 

''■  Wodrow,  iii.  38.  ^  /^/^^  jg. 

*  The  icmi  'Cameronian'  as  applied  to  the  parties  'agin  the  Government'  appears  to 
have  been  in  use  before  this  time,  probably  in  1677.     Cf.  Six  Saints,  i.  241  ;  ii.  167,  note  9. 


THE  EXIT  OF  SHARP  283 

indulged  in  by  the  agents  of  the  Crown.'  During  the  month  of 
April  1679,  about  twenty  men,  including  David  Hackston  of  Rathillet, 
met  in  Gilston,  Leslie,  and  other  places  to  pray  and  to  consider 
probable  action.  The  hapless  Sharp  was  now  devoted  for  sacrifice, 
at  least  by  the  determination  of  some  of  these  outlaws.^ 

Since  January,  before  the  execution  of  Mitchell,  'several  godly  Plot  to  dis- 
men '  had  been  dogging  the  Primate  between  St.  Andrews  and  ^^^'^^  ^^^"^' 
Edinburgh  ;  twice  he  narrowly  escaped  their  sinister  intentions  ;  and 
'  other  worthy  Christians  had  used  means  to  get  him  upon  the  road 
before.'  The  zealots  at  several  meetings  discussed  the  subject  of  the 
removal  of  Sharp  and  Carmichael,  and  concluded  it  to  be  their  duty 
to  hang  both  of  them  'over  the  port,'  much  as  Cardinal  Beaton  had 
been  treated.  Russell  and  other  conspirators,  feeling  impulses  to  do 
something,  consulted  the  oracle  in  the  Scriptures  and  confessed 
having  got  encouragement  therein  for  their  homicidal  mania.  John 
Balfour  of  Kinloch,  a/ias  '  Captain  Burleigh,'  declared  he  was  pre- 
vented fleeing  to  the  Highlands,  and,  on  asking  God's  mind,  was 
turned  back  with  these  words,  '  Go,  and  prosper.'  Then  he  got  this 
divine  commission  from  Scripture,  '  Go,  have  not  I  sent  thee  .'* '  and 
he  dared  no  longer  question.^  Smith,  a  godly  weaver  in  Struther- 
dyke,  prayed,  then  oracularly  observed,  that  if  God  wished  it  He 
would  place  the  persecutors  in  the  avengers'  way. 

The  result  of  these  deliberations  was  the  desire  for  an  assize  on 

'  Wodrow,  iii.  42. 

-  The  authorities  for  the  following  facts  are  inter  alia  :  Add.  MSS.  (Brit.  Mus.),  28747, 
fol.  23  :  Rothes  to  Lauderdale,  4th  May  1679  ;  Cal.  State  Pap.  (Charles  11.),  79,  fol.  412  ;  A 
True  Relation  .  .  .  (Lond.,  1679) ;  Anal.  Scot.,  ii.  389 ;  A  True  Account .  .  .  (Lond.,  1679)  (by 
Mackenzie  ?) ;  Hickes,  The  Spirit  of  Popery  .  .  .  (Lond.,  1680) ;  Russell's  'Account'  in  Kirkton, 
403-82;  Guillan's 'Account,'  Wodrow  MSS.,iiX\v.;  M'Crie,  Veitch,\OT,\  Blackadder, iT/f/««W, 
210,  211  ;  Burnet,  ii.  236  ;  Wodrow,  iii.  40-52  ;  Macldnlay  MS.,  A  coppie  of  the  maner  of  the 
death,  etc.  ;  Wodrow,  iii.  49  note  ;  'Account  .  .  .  from  two  persons  present,'  Kirkton,  419  note  ; 
Stephen,  Life,  57S-619  ;  Defoe,  24S  ;  Fountainhall,  Decisions,  i.  47,  62;  Hist.  Not.,  i.  225; 
Aldis,  Zzi/,  2160,  2170  ;  'Lz.w,  Memoirs,  147;  Mackenzie,  Vindication,  ^o;  Criminal  Letters, 
IVodroui  MSS.,  xx\u\.  48;  Book  of  Adjournal,  1683;  Vict.  Nat.  Biog:,  art.  'Sharp';  Pe^. 
Sec.  Cone,  Dec,  1679  ;  Pat.  Walker  (ed.  Fleming),  Si.x  Saints,  i.  214  ;  ii.  160 ;  'Account  of 
Balfour  of  Burley '  in  Scots  Mag.,  i.  130,  September  1817  ;  Scott,  Old  Mortality,  chaps,  iv.,  v., 
and  notes.     Cf.  postea,  pp.  284,  286. 

■'  Russell's  '  Account '  in  Kirkton,  408,  412. 


284 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Deliberations 
of  the  twelve 
plotters. 


Escape  of 
Carmichael. 


Discovery  of 
the  Primate. 


horseback  with  Hackston  at  their  head,  if  he  would  take  command. 
It  was  also  agreed  to  invite  two  stalwart  fighters  for  the  cause,  then 
absent,  John  Balfour  and  John  Henderson.  On  Friday,  and  May, 
the  thirteen  conspirators  met  on  the  moor  near  Gilston,  and,  after 
discharging  a  weak  associate,  the  lucky  number  proceeded  to 
Baldinny  to  spend  the  night.'  Robert  Black's  wife  there  was  a 
veritable  Judith  encouraging  the  desperadoes,  one  of  whom  gave  her 
a  holy  kiss  at  parting,  when  she  replied  :  '  If  long  Leslie  |  minister  at 
Ceres]  be  with  him  [Sharp],  lay  him  on  the  green  also.'  'There  is 
the  hand  that  shall  do  it,'  was  the  response  of  the  gallant.^ 

Early  in  the  morning  a  scout  was  dispatched,  and  returned  to 
report  that  Sheriff  Carmichael,  who  loved  to  hunt  a  hare  as  well  as  to 
run  a  Whig  to  earth,  was  already  riding  with  his  dogs  to  Tarvit  Hill, 
A  party  mounted  and  rode  to  the  hill  to  find  that  Carmichael,  warned 
by  a  shepherd,  had  gone  back  to  Cupar.  He  had  realised  his  peril. 
A  night  or  two  before,  Hackston  had  fixed  on  the  door  of  Cupar 
school  a  discharge  to  all  parties  buying  Carmichael's  poinded  goods, 
thereby  putting  the  people  in  reverence  of  Whig  reprisals. 

When  the  scattered  conspirators  met  again  to  consider  the  next 
move,  a  boy  appeared  with  a  message  from  Mrs.  Black  to  the  effect  that 
the  coach  of  the  Archbishop  was  passing  between  Ceres  and  Blebo- 
hole.  They  saw  it  and  exclaimed  :  '  Truly,  this  is  of  God  ;  it  seemeth 
that  God  hath  delivered  him  into  our  hands.'  All  except  Hackston 
avowed  a  clear  call  to  kill,  or,  in  their  fatalistic  terminology,  '  to 
execute  the  justice  of  God'  on  the  'murtherer  of  His  saints.' 
Hackston  had  scruples.  There  was  '  a  known  prejudice  betwixt  the 
bishop  and  him,' so  that  his  intervention  now  'would  mar  the  glory  of 
the  action.'  When  he  refused  to  lead  the  band  of  nine  in  the  chase 
Balfour  cried,  'Gentlemen,  follow  me.'  This  bold  avenger  was 
described  at  Hackston's  trial  as  'a  laigh,  broad  man,  round,  ruddy 

'  They  were  David  Hackston  of  Rathillet,  John  Balfour  of  Kinloch,  James  Russell  in 
Kettle,  George  Fleman  or  Fleming  in  Halbuthy,  junior,  Alexander  and  Andrew,  sons  of  John 
Henderson   in  Kilbrachmont,  James,  Alexander,  and   George    Balfour   in  Gilston,  William 

Danziel  in  Caddam  (Robert  Dingwall  in  'Hue  and  Cry').  Thomas  Ness  in  P ,and  Andrew 

Guillan,  weaver  in  Balmerino.  a  'Deposition'  in  Kirkton,  418  note. 


THE  EXIT  OF  SHARP  285 

faced,  dark  brown  hair,  and  had  ane  brown  horse,  armed  with  hulster 
pistols  and  a  shable  [sword]. '^  Hackston  followed  his  brother-in-law 
on  a  white  horse. 

We  turn  to  the  intended  victim.  He  had  done  his  worst  for  the  The  final 
Covenant  he  had  sworn,  his  utmost  against  the  faithful  maintainers  sharp. 
of  it.  His  untiring  assiduity  in  wiping  out  what  he  called  the 
'gangrene'  of  dissent  had  its  most  striking  illustration  on  Thursday, 
the  ist  of  May,  when  he  attended  the  Privy  Council  for  the  last  time. 
He  was  one  of  twenty-six  legislators  who  sat  that  day  revising  and 
authorising  sanguinary  measures.  One  of  these  was  a  proclamation 
'  Against  being  in  arms  at  field  conventicles,'  afterwards  published 
on  13th  May.^ 

This  order  virtually  empowered  any  ofificer  of  the  Crown— the 
meanest  justice  of  the  peace  or  youngest  subaltern — to  seize,  try  for 
treason,  and  execute  on  the  spot  any  suspected  conventicler  carrying 
any  '  weapon  invasive.'  The  Primate,  it  was  said,  contemplated 
going  to  London  to  have  the  latest  repressive  legislation  sanctioned, 
and  this  may  have  been  one  of  the  '  papers  of  moment '  found  when 
his  coach  was  ransacked.  It  was  an  iniquitous  Act  quite  to  be 
expected  at  the  end  of  a  reptilious  career,  and  a  suitable  accompani- 
ment for  the  French  pistols,  which  this  high-priest  carried  along  with 
his  pictorial  Bible. 

On  the  2nd  May,  the  Primate,  his  daughter  Isabella,  and  five  sharp  on  the 
servants,  with  the  state-coach  drawn  by  six  horses,  reached  the  Andrews, 
village  of  Kennoway,  where  Captain  Seatoun  entertained  them  for 
the  night.  On  Saturday  forenoon  the  equipage  halted  at  the  manse 
of  Ceres,  where  the  social  prelate  had  a  comforting  pipe  with  '  long 
Leslie.'  As  they  proceeded  homeward  Sharp  grew  nervous  as  he 
approached  Millar's  farm  at  Magus,  or  iNlagask,  and  said  to  his 
daughter :  '  There  lives  an  ill-natured  man,  God  preserve  us,  my 
child.' ^     It  was  a  timeous  presentiment. 

'  M'Crie,  Misc.  Wril.,  yi"]  note.     He  was  a  burly  man,  known  as  '  Burly,'  or  '  Burley." 
-  Wodrow,  iii.  58  note  ;  /v'ey.  Sec.  Cone,  Dec,  245  ;  Aldis,  List,  2161,  2162,  2163. 
•^  Wodrow,  Narrative,  iii.  46  note. 


286 


THE  COVENANTERS 


The  chase.  At  noon,  as  the  coach  rumbled  up  to  the  ridge  where  Magus  Moor 

slopes  down  into  green  Strathkinness,  in  sight  of  the  cathedral  towers 
of  St.  Andrews,  three  miles  and  a  half  away,  the  band  of  nine 
'execrable  fanatical  assassinates,'  as  the  Hue  and  Cry  described  them, 
were  seen  galloping,  pistols  in  hand,  and  naked  shables  gleaming  in 
the  sun  looped  to  their  right  wrists.  The  other  three,  James  and 
Alexander  Balfour  in  Gilston  and  Thomas  Ness,  did  not  join  the 
assassins.'  Suspecting  their  evil  design,  the  prelate  frantically  urged 
coachman  and  postillion  to  '  drive,  drive,  drive.'  Balfour,  Russell, 
Henderson,  and  others  fired  at  the  fleeing  coach,  then  threw  their 
pistols  and  cloaks  on  the  ground.  Slashing  the  faces  of  horses  and 
postillions,  ham-stringing  the  leaders,  and  cutting  the  traces,  they 
soon  held  up  the  coach.  With  execrations,  '  dog,'  '  villain,'  'apostate,' 
'  murderer  of  Mitchell,  Guthrie,  and  Learmont,'  they  ordered  him 
to  '  come  forth,  Judas.'  He  descended  yet  unwounded."  More  pro- 
bably Balfour's  last  shot  into  the  .standing  coach  gave  him  the  only 
gun-shot  wound  he  got.^ 

The  premeditated  informal  assize  proceeded  on  the  moorland, 
and  the  fierce  accusers,  hurling  impeachments  and  taunts  at  the 
defenceless  prisoner,  in  imitation  of  the  Council's  method,  were 
prosecutor,  jury,  judge,  and  executioners  in  turn.  Asseverating  that 
'he  never  wronged  man,'  he  piteously  begged  his  life.  They  told 
him  to  repent  and  prepare  for  death,  judgment,  and  eternity,  and  bade 
him  pray.  He  would  not  pray,  or,  in  the  circumstances,  could  not. 
Assuming  a  judicial  air  Balfour  said  that  no  spleen  moved  them  ; 
Sharp,  murderer,  betrayer,  and  enemy  of  Christ,  must  die.  On 
Sharp  makes  his  knees  he  looked  up  into  the  squinting  eyes  of  little  Balfour,  fiercer 
a  vain  appeal.  igQi^jng  with  his  ten  wecks'  beard,  and  probably  recognising  that 
beggared  heritor,  said  :  '  You  are  a  gentleman  .  .  .  have  pity  upon 
my  poor  child  here  and  spare  her  life,  and  for  this,  sir,  give  me  your 
hand.'     Balfour's  reply  was  a  slash  on  his  upturned   face  before  he 


A  deadly 
assize. 


'  Kirkton,  413.  -  His  son's  Letter,  Kirkton,  483. 

'  Russell's  'Account'  in   Kirkton,  417.     Veitch    mentions   Burly's  'brazen  blunderbus': 
Memoirs,  104. 


THE  EXIT  OF  SHARP  287 

rode  him  down.  Another  account  makes  Sharp  crawl  to  the  feet 
of  Hackston,  who  answered  his  entreaty,  '  Sir,  I  shall  never  lay  a 
hand  on  you.'  At  the  sight  of  the  cold  steel  the  Archbishop  shrieked. 
His  daughter  rushed  between  the  avenging  blades  and  her  father, 
and  was  wounded  too.  With  fiendish  delight  Russell  recorded  the 
brutalities — usually  attributed  to  Balfour — which  he  himself  per- 
petrated.' Guilian,  who  held  the  horses,  implored  the  slayers  to 
spare  the  old  man's  life,  and  was  threatened  by  Balfour.  He 
appealed  to  Hackston,  who,  mounted  on  horseback,  '  his  cloak 
about  his  mouth,'  stood  by  looking  on  at  the  tragedy.  But  '  that  The  ro;// «■<; 
once  pious  godly  youth'  refused  to  interfere.  At  length  William  May  1679. 
Dingwall  gave  the  victim  the  final  thrust,  and  Russell  exultingly 
exclaimed:  'Take  up  your  priest  now.'  Wallace,  one  of  the  atten- 
dants, made  a  gallant  defence  before  he  was  cut  down. 

The  dead  man's  pockets  were  rifled.  The  coach  and  baggage 
were  next  ransacked.  They  found  State  papers,  a  Bible,  a  talisman, 
a  tobacco-box,  out  of  which  flew  a  humming-bee  (supposed  to  be  his 
'familiar'),  some  nail  parings — probably  used  for  scaring  witches — 
a  case  of  pistols,  and  a  few  trifles  belonging  to  his  daughter.^ 

A  monument  marks  the  scene  of  the  tragedy.  In  an  adjoining 
field  another  marks  the  grave  of  five  men  put  to  death  there  to 
appease  the  manes  of  Archbishop  Sharp :  while  in  a  clump  of  trees 
close  by,  still  another  stone  indicates  the  spot  where  Guilian,  after 
being  hung  in  chains,  was  buried.^  With  almost  regal  pomp  the  body 
of  the  Primate  was  conveyed  to  St.  Andrews,  and,  on  the  17th  May, 
buried  in  the  parish  church  there.  As  was  meet.  Bishop  Paterson, 
the  inventor  of  the  thumbscrews,  preached  the  funeral  sermon.  A 
handsome  monument  representing  the  Archbishop  in  the  attitude  of 
prayer,  and  also  portraying  the  slaughter,  was  erected  to  his  memory, 

'  A  post-mortem  examination  showed  that  the  Primate  had  got  a  sword-cut  over  the  left 
eye  ;  many  cuts  on  the  back  of  the  head  with  loss  of  brains  ;  one  shot-wound  below  the  right 
clavicle  ;  one  dagger  wound  near  the  kidneys  ;  three  wounds  on  the  left  hand  and  one  on  the 
right  hand  :  The  Spirit  of  Popery,  58.  This  was  practically  one  wound  for  every  outlaw 
present.  Russell's  boastful,  self-glorifying,  brutal  narrative  must  be  taken  with  a  discount. 
For  Guillan's  fate,  cf.  postea.     William  Dingwall  fell  at  Drumclog.     Ci.  posfea,  p.  303. 

'  Kirkton,  421  ;  Wodrow,  iii.  45.  >  C{.  postea,  p.  405  note  i. 


2SS 


THE  COVENANTERS 


The  dispatch 
of  Sharp  was 
preconcerted. 


Estimate  of 
Archbishop 
Sharp. 


•and  (at  least  once  repaired)  still  remains  a  striking  memorial  of  the 
breadth  of  Presbyterian  toleration. 

That  the  dispatch  of  Sharp  was  premeditated  seems  certain,  and, 
as  the  outlaws  blasphemously  expressed  their  determination,  the 
accomplishment  of  it  was  left  to  the  direction  of  God.  John  Wel- 
wood,  when  dying,  is  credited  with  saying  in  April  to  a  hapless 
youth,  then  intercommuned — Andrew  Ay  ton  of  Inchdarnie  :  'You'll 
shortly  be  quit  of  him,  and  he  '11  get  a  sudden  and  sharp  off-going, 
and  ye  will  be  the  first  that  will  take  the  good  news  of  his  death  to 
heaven.'  ^  The  prophecy  was  fulfilled.  In  searching  on  the  night  of 
the  murder  for  the  perpetrators  of  the  deed,  a  party  of  soldiers  under 
the  Justice-General  and  the  laird  of  Lundy  met,  shot,  and  mortally 
wounded  this  'comely  sweet  youth,'  Ayton,  riding  peacefully  down  to 
Cupar  to  hear  a  preacher  there,  and  they  also  took  Hendry  Shaw.^ 

Thus  disappeared  the  much  misguided  champion  of  unpopular 
prelacy— hero  and  saint  he  was  not — whose  prowess  was  exhibited 
in  the  persistent  audacity  with  which  he,  devoid  of  intellectual  and 
moral  strength,  at  the  bidding  of  superiors  in  rank  and  authority, 
slavishly  devoted  himself  to  foisting,  by  ignoble  means,  on  his  country 
and  Church,  a  system  of  government  as  unconstitutional  as  it  was 
detestable  to  honourable  freemen.  A  competent  and  unprejudiced 
authority,  Mr.  Osmund  Airy,  has  well  declared  what  the  knowing 
Covenanters  always  said,  and  died  for  saying:  '  In  the  most  compre- 
hensive sense  of  the  term,  Sharp  was  a  knave  pur  sang,  and  one  who, 
to  retain  the  price  of  his  knavery,  either  submitted  to  be  cajoled, 
threatened,  bullied,  or  ignored,  by  bolder  men  as  served  their  turn.'  * 
What  more  needs  to  be  said?  The  most  exalted  Christian  in  Scot- 
land— absit  omen — was  a  knave  pur  sang\  Little  wonder  that  that 
clearest-headed  and  largest-hearted  of  Scotsmen,  who  so  long  with 
dignity  lived   in   the   same   sacred   precincts,  could  write  :  '  But  his 

>  Six  Saints,  i.  214. 

-  Ibid.,  215;  Wodrow,  ill.  56;  Rothes  to  Lauderdale,  4th  May  1679:  Add.  MSS., 
28547,  fol.  23.  Letters  found  about  Ayton's  person  and  in  Russell's  house  indicated  precon- 
certed measures  against  Sharp  :  Kirkton,  424  note. 

'  Laud.  Pap;  i.,  Pref.  x. 


Effigy  of  Archbisliop  Sharp  in  the  Parish  Churcli,  Si.  Andrews 
(l'lwtogra/>li  by  Mr.  (,'.  B,  Rodger,  St.  Andrews) 


THE  EXIT  OF  SHARP  289 

[Sharp's]  public  career  after  the  Restoration  is  without  redeeming 
points ;  and  even  as  one  stands  by  his  bloody  grave,  where  I  have 
stood  more  than  once  with  the  wisest  and  gentlest  of  modern 
Anglican  teachers,  it  is  hardly  possible  to  start  a  tear  of  sympathy 
over  his  awful  fate.'^  After  all,  there  may  have  been  many  who 
thought,  what  Judge  Brodie  wrote  in  his  Diary:  'I  heard  that  the 
Bishop  of  St.  Androes  was  kild.  It  grewd  my  soul  to  hear  that 
ane  professing  reall  grace  should  fall  in  such  an  act.  I  abhor  it 
perfectlie."^  As  was  to  be  expected,  the  Covenanters  were  divided 
into  two  parties  when  considering  the  justifiableness  of  the  execution 
of  Sharp  by  self-constituted  judges — the  extremists,  such  as  the  author 
of  A  Hind  Let  Loose,  defending,  and  other  sufferers  reprobating  it. 
Wodrow  mentions  the  fact  that  the  Scots  cong-regation  in  Rotterdam 
would  not  allow  the  outlawed  Balfour  to  have  fellowship  with  them  in 
the  Communion  on  account  of  his  indefensible  life  and  character.^ 

The  baneful  influence  of  Sharp,  so  far  from  dying  with  him,  found 
expression  in  the  redoubled  rigour  with  which  his  bereft  associates 
persisted  in  executing  old  and  new  persecuting  enactments.*  The 
high-priest's  mantle  fell  on  the  King's  advocate — Mackenzie.  On 
the  4th  May  the  Council  issued  a  Hue  and  Cry,  with  the  names  of  the 
assassins  printed  red,  probably  in  blood,  offering  10,000  merks  for 
their  apprehension,  plainly  attributing  the  murder  to  the  conven- 
ticlers,  and  ordering  heritors  and  masters  in  Fife  to  gather  all  the 
inhabitants  at  four  centres  for  examination,  the  absentees  to  be 
reckoned  assenters  to  the  murder.^  Another  proclamation  made 
heritors  and  masters  responsible  for  the  offences  of  suspects  not 
apprehended  or  evicted  from  their  lands  or  service."  Another  forbade 
any  one  carrying  arms  without  a  licence." 

The  killing  of  a  Crown  dignitary  afforded  a  pretext  for  further 

'  Principal  TuUoch,  Scottish  Divines,  138  (Edin.,  1883). 

''  5tli  May  1679  :  Diary,  412.  *  Wodrow,  iii.  47. 

*  Sir  Walter  .Scott  probably  had  a  foundation  for  the  vow  which  he  makes  Claverhouse 
take,  never  to  excuse  any  from  '  the  ample  and  bitter  penalty  of  the  law,  until  I  shall  have 
taken  as  many  lives  in  vengeance  of  this  atrocious  murder,  as  the  old  man  had  grey  hairs 
upon  his  venerable  head' ;  Old  Mortality,  x.  "  Wodrow,  iii.  52  note. 

«  Ibid.,  56,  57,  58  and  notes  ;  Aldis,  List,  2160,  2170.  '  Aldis,  List,  2162. 

VOL.  II.  2  0 


igo 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Flight  of  the 
assassins. 


Vengeance  of  Spoliation.     There   was  little   need  for  fresh  incitements.     On  that 
ment.  vcry  May  day  Lord  Ross  had  to  throw  eight  soldiers  into  irons  for 

committing  a  wanton  burglary  and  arson. ^  Innocents  apprehended 
lay  in  prison  long,  untried,  forgotten.'-  For  holding  private  worship 
in  a  relative's  house  after  canonical  hours,  William  Hamilton,  a 
preacher,  was  thrown  into  the  cells,  where  dysentery  cut  him  off 
before  he  could  be  tried,  no  engagement  for  his  compearance  being 
acceptable  to  the  Council.^  The  jailors  and  Claverhouse  were  busy. 
The  westlandmen  burned  with  ragfe. 

From  Magus  Moor  the  bloodstained  gang,  after  gathering  up  their 
cloaks  and  pistols,  rode  away  to  hold  a  prayer-meeting  for  several 
hours,  at  which  they  praised  themselves,  gloried  in  their  deed,  and 
lauded  God,  'seeing  He  had  been  pleased  to  honour  them  to  act  for 
Him  and  to  execute  His  justice  upon  that  wretch.'  The  disordered 
Dingwall  avowed  that  he  heard  the  Lord  saying  to  him,  '  Well 
done,  good  and  faithful  servants.'  Thereafter  they  rode  away,  some 
to  home,  others  into  hiding.  The  Balfours,  Hackston,  and  Russell 
rode  together,  deviously,  and,  after  various  adventures,  came  to 
Dunblane,  where  they  had  a  stiff  refreshment  of  brandy  before  pro- 
ceeding to  Kippen.  There  a  preacher  joined  them,  and  while,  on 
1 8th  May,  they  were  preparing  for  a  conventicle  in  Fintry  Craigs,  a 
party  of  horse  from  Stirling  attacked  and  dispersed  them,  not  until 
some  of  the  soldiers  were  wounded,  and  one  of  the  Whigs,  called 
Robert  Rainie,  received  a  spent  shot.  Burly  only  evading  capture  by 
flight  over  a  bog.  Often  suspected,  and  even  recognised,  although 
never  betrayed,  they  skulked  and  moved  towards  the  safer  west, 
where  Richard  Cameron's  following  were  defying  the  Government.* 

Richard  Cameron,  since  obtaining  licence  in  the  spring  of  1678, 
had  developed  into  a  fervid  evangelical  preacher  and  an  implacable 

'  Napier,  Memorials,  ii.  303. 

■^  E.g.  the  cases  of  James  Stirk,  Thomas  Ness,  William  Falconer  (bedfast):  Reg.  Sec.  Cone, 
Dec,  330,  425.  '  Wodrow,  iii.  54. 

••  For  the  shelter  which  Hackston  got  from  Allan  of  Elsrickle  near  Biggar,  he  presented 
his  host  with  his  ring,  and  remarked,  '  I  am  uncolys  [exceedingly]  obleeged  to  you.'  The 
ring  is  in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  Pearson,  Crofthead,  Muirkirk,  whose  family  preserve  this 
anecdote. 


THE  EXIT  OF  SHARP  291 

enemy  to  Erastianism,  even  in  its  compromise  between  the  outed  and  Richard 
the  indulged  ministry,  which  was  favoured  by  Welsh,  Blackadder,  theTrecon" 
and  other  moderately  inclined  nonconformists.  The  latter,  lamenting  "'^bies. 
further  divisions,  worked  for  reunion  and  peace.  The  Cameronian 
or  Cargill  party  with  Douglas  and  others,  encouraged  by  the 
trenchant  advices  and  pamphlets  of  the  exiles,  Brown,  MacWard, 
and  others,  deemed  it  their  duty  to  hold  denunciatory  services  in  the 
parishes  allotted  to  the  indulged.  Cameron  would  not  brook  any 
restraint  or  even  counsel  on  these  points,  and  continued  banning  the 
Indulgence  and  the  State  for  interfering  with  the  Church.  The 
more  prudent  nonconforming  ministers,  who  had  licensed  Cameron, 
cited  him  to  compear  at  Sunday  well  on  14th  November  1678,  and  at 
Dindeuch  in  Galloway  on  26th  December  1678,  to  submit  to  presby- 
terial  discipline  and  instruction.'  Cameron,  supported  by  Henry  Hall 
of  Haughhead,  Robert  Hamilton,  Robert  Gray,  John  Fowler,  Michael 
Cameron,  his  brother,  and  others,  attended  at  Sundaywell.  Taking 
exception  to  the  procedure,  Cameron  haughtily  left  the  convention, 
unconcerned  about  the  proposal  to  take  away  his  licence.'^  Robert 
Hamilton  objected  to  these  unconstitutional  meetings  altogether. 

Hamilton  was  the  younger  son  of  Sir  Thomas  Hamilton  of  Sir  Robert 
Preston  and  Fingalton  (who  signed  the  Covenant  in  1638)  and  was  jg^^','""' 
born  in  1650.^  He  was  educated  in  the  house  of  Professor  Gilbert 
Burnet,  brother-in-law  to  his  father.^  According  to  Burnet,  Robert 
was  'then  a  lively,  hopeful,  young  man,'  whom  the  company  of 
dissenters  turned  into  'a  crackbrained  enthusiast.''*  Blackadder 
describes  him  as  the  young  incompetent  convener  of  meddlers  and 

'  Sundaywell  or  Sundewal,  a  fine  old  house,  Kirko's  home,  with  the  inscription  'J.  K.  S.  W., 
165 1,'  still  stands  on  the  road  between  Dunscore  and  Craigenputtock. 

'  Herkless,  Cameron,  68-78  ;  Howie,  The  Scots  Worthies  (Carslaw's  edition),  423. 

^  J.  B.  Dalziel,  The  Covenanters,  8  (Hamilton,  1888).  Janet  Hamilton,  his  sister,  married 
Alexander  Gordon  of  Earlston.  M'Millanites,  according  to  Patrick  Walker,  'should  be  called 
Hamiltonians,  after  Robert  Hamilton,  who  was  the  only  man  .  .  .  that  led  them  in  these 
untroden,  dangerous  paths  of  positive  disowning  of  the  State,  and  separation  from  the 
Church,  and  [from]  all  others  that  dare  not  nor  will  not  go  their  lengths  in  principles  and 
practices'  :  Six  Saints,  i.  138,  139  ;  Howie,  The  Scots  Worthies,  597-607. 

'  Burnet's  sister  was  the  second  wife  of  Sir  Thomas  Hamilton,  and  step-mother  of  Robert. 

»  Hist.t  ii.  238. 


292 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Manifesto  by 
the  extremists, 


Testimony  at 
Rutherglen, 
29th  May 
1679. 


Sticklers,  who  held  frequent  deliberative  meetings  in  1678,  before  the 
times  were  ripe,   to  consider   the    propriety  of  rising  in  arms,  and 
thereby  did  no  good  to  the  cause  by  making  the  people  restless  and 
the  executive  more  rigorous/     Officers  in  the  country  warned  the 
Government  to   expect  a  rising.      Claverhouse,   one  of  whose  pre- 
datory soldiers  had  lately  mortally  stabbed  the  Provost  of  Stranraer, 
informed    Linlithgow,    the   Commander-in-chief,    that    the    peasantry    ■ 
possessed  the  arms  of  the  militia,  and  that  '  Mr.  Welsh  is  accustom- 
ing both  ends  of  the  country  to  face  the  King's  forces,  and  certainly 
intends  to  break  out  in  an  open  rebellion.' - 

Hackston  and  his  associates  came  into  touch  with  Hamilton, 
Douglas  the  preacher,  and  their  party,  who  held  a  conventicle  in 
Avondale  on  the  25th  May.  Now  determined  to  make  a  public 
testimony,  a  deputation  of  these  extremists — Hamilton,  Hackston, 
Burly — went  to  Glasgow  to  meet  Donald  Cargill  and  John  Spreul, 
for  the  purpose  of  settling  the  terms  of  a  manifesto,  first  to  be 
approved,  as  it  was,  at  a  meeting  at  Strathaven,  before  being  formally 
published  at  Rutherglen. 

For  this  act  they  selected  the  29th  May,  the  unpopular  statutory 
holiday  in  honour  of  the  King's  birth  and  restoration.     To  Ruther- 
glen they  rode,  sixty  or  eighty  in  number,  put  out  the  bonfires  on  the 
streets,  and  compelled   the  magistrates  to  accompany  them  to  the 
Market  Cross.     After  Douglas  prayed  and  harangued  the  crowd,  the 
sympathisers  sang  a  psalm.     Hamilton  then  read  out  the  manifesto 
in  its  seven  sections,  whereby  they,  '  as  true  members  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,'  added  their  testimony  to  that  of  the  martyrs  against  all 
the  statutes  for  overturning  the   work  of  Reformation,   establishing 
Episcopacy,  renouncing  the  Covenants,  outing  the  ministry,  imposing 
Restoration    Day,   setting   up  the   royal   supremacy,   authorising  the 
Indulgence,  and  against  the  illegal  acts  of  the  Privy  Council.* 

Hamilton   affixed    the   Testimony  to   the  Cross   and    threw  the 
obnoxious  statutes  into  a  fire.      The  zealots  would   have   invaded 


'  Memoirs,  214. 

'  Kirkton,  439  ;  Wodrow,  iii.  66. 


Napier,  Memorials,  ii.  202  :  21st  April  1679. 


THE  EXIT  OF  SHARP  293 

Glasgow  had  it  not  been  strongly  held  by  Lord  Rosse.  Instead, 
they  retired  to  the  wilds  of  Lanark  and  Ayr,  to  brood  and  pray  over 
the  wronofs  which  groaded  them  into  becominof  revolutionaries.^  There 
were  many  secret  sympathisers  with  their  cause  who  had  not  the 
courage  to  oppose  the  '  Sons  of  Belial,'  and  who  consoled  themselves, 
meantime,  with  the  prayer  of  '  Burley's  Litany  ' — 

'  From  the  Archbishop's  Hector,  ready  att  a  call, 
From  the  Carrabine  charged  with  a  double  ball. 
From  John  Whyt,  the  hangman,  who  is  last  of  all, 
Libera  nos  Domine.' 


'  Very  interesting  short  biographies  of  the  leading  Covenanters  are  found  in  7'Ae  Sco/s 
IVorihies,  by  John  Howie  of  Lochgoin.  The  excellent  revised  edition  by  the  Rev.  W.  H. 
Carslaw,  M.A.  (Edin.,  1870),  was  consulted  for  this  work,  g.v.  The  Rev.  John  H.  Thomson's 
edition  (Edin.,  1871)  of  ^4  Cloud  of  Witnesses  (1714)  presents  the  'Last  Speeches  and 
Testimonies'  of  the  sufferers,  g.v.  The  complement  of  both  is  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Thomson's 
TAe  Martyr  Graves  of  Scotland,  edited  by  the  Rev.  Matthew  Hutchison,  and  containing  a 
masterly  introduction  by  Dr.  D.  Hay  Fleming,  entitled  'The  Story  of  the  Scottish  Covenants 
in  Outline'  (1903).  Exquisite  characterisations  are  presented  by  the  Rev.  Alexander  Smellie, 
M.A.,  in  his  Men  of  the  Covenant  {Lond.,  1903),  g.v. 


294 


THE  COVENANTERS 


CHAPTER    XXVI 


THE    RISE    OF   CLAVERHOUSE 


Lineage  of 
Graham  of 
Claverhouse, 


To  the  chase  after  these  defiant  Whigs 

'  There,  worthy  of  his  masters,  came 
The  Despot's  Champion,  bloody  Graham, 
To  stain  for  aye  a  warrior's  sword. 
And  lead  a  fierce,  though  fawning  horde, — 
The  human  bloodhounds  of  the  earth. 
To  hunt  the  peasant  from  the  hearth.' 

At  this  time  Claverhouse  had  the  repute  of  being  a  terror  in  the 
south,  at  the  mention  of  whose  name  intending  conventiclers  dis- 
appeared. This  John  Graham,  eldest  son  of  Sir  William,  laird  of 
Claverhouse  and  Claypots,  near  Dundee,  and  of  Lady  Magdalene 
Carnegie,  fifth  daughter  of  John,  Earl  of  Ethie,  afterwards  first  Earl 
of  Northesk,  was  of  aristocratic  lineage.  Born  probably  in  1648,  he 
was  left  fatherless  when  five  years  of  age.^  The  latter  circumstance 
contributed  to  the  comparative  affluence  of  Claverhouse  at  his 
majority.  Like  Turner,  Bruce  of  Earlshall,  Lag,  and  other  harriers 
of  the  Covenanters,  he  had  a  university  education.  No  one  could 
conjecture  this  from  his  compositions,  wherein  he  expressed  his 
thoughts  in  a  rude,  vulgar,  and  curiously  spelled  dialect,  not  employed 
by  other  students  in  St.  Andrews."  With  six  hundred  pounds 
annually  from  his  property,  he  had  no  need,  like  Turner,  to  become 
a  mercenary,  fighting  for  daily  bread.      Yet  he  had  gone  to,   and 

'  Terry,/o//«  Graham,  chap.  i.  ;  Morris,  Claverhouse,  chap.  i. ;  Napier,  Memorials,  i.  178  ; 
The  Despot's  Champion,  chap.  i.  I  have  searched  twenty-five  likely  parish  registers  for  the 
record  of  his  birth,  but  in  vain  as  yet. 

'  Napier,  in  the  Memorials,  wonderfully  clarified  the  phenomenal  spelling  of  his  hero,  and 
gave  his  letters  a  respectable  appearance. 


THE  RISE  OF  CLAVERHOUSE  295 

returned  from,  France  and  Holland  with  the  reputation  of  being  a 
dashing  officer,  whose  white  plume  had  marked  the  track  of  his 
gallantry  at  Seneffe.  At  the  instance  of  the  King  and  his  brother, 
Claverhouse  was  gazetted  captain  of  a  new  troop  of  horse  on  23rd 
September  1678.  His  duty  in  patrolling  troublous  Dumfriesshire 
that  winter  animated  him  with  zeal  and  delight.  He  had  peculiar,  if 
not  unique,  views  of  soldiering  at  home,  considering  himself  to  be  an  views  of 
armed  high-priest,  commissioned  to  sacrifice  the  enemies  of  the  Crown  ^'''^"''°"=^- 
as  much  for  their  own  sake  as  for  that  of  his  employer ;  an  Episcopal 
crusader  inspired  to  do  battle  with  dissent  and  cleanse  away  the 
gangrene  likely  to  infect  and  destroy  divine  Episcopacy.  Thus  he 
confessed  to  Queensberry  :  '  For  my  owen  pairt  I  look  on  myself  as  a 
cleanger.  I  may  cur  people  guilty  of  that  plaigue  of  presbitry  be 
conversing  with  them,  but  can  not  be  infected.''  He  was  the  natural 
successor  to  Turner,  who  acted  on  the  principle,  '  that  so  as  we  serve 
our  master  honnestlie  it  is  no  matter  what  we  serve,'  since  Claver- 
house declared :  'In  any  service  I  have  been  in,  I  never  enquired 
farther  in  the  laws,  than  the  orders  of  my  superior  officers.'"  Even 
jovial  Turner  did  not  go  so  far  as  a  hireling,  who,  given  a  warrant, 
would  shoot  incontinently,  and  sheathe  his  sword  anywhere.  With 
such  a  despicable  want  of  principle,  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  this 
fanatic,  Graham,  when  revelling  in  his  exterminating  work,  compli- 
menting the  Earl  of  Menteith  on  a  similar  assiduity  :  '  I  rejoice  to  hear 
you  have  now  taken  my  trade  in  hand,  that  you  are  become  the 
terror  of  the  godly.' ^  Although  Sir  Ewen  Cameron  asserted  that 
Claverhouse  died  a  '  good  Christian,'  there  is  no  record  of  any  pious 
thoughts  or  humane  deeds  in  connection  with  his  career,  apart  from 
the  fact  that  he  drove  other  sinners  into  church  to  inspect  them,  had 
family  prayers,  and  attended  the  baptism  of  the  son  of  the  parson  of 
Dundee.''  Probably  for  the  same  undiscoverable  reasons  that  Mr. 
Andrew  Lang  averred  that  Turner  '  was  infinitely  more  of  a  Christian 
than  the  saints  of  the  Covenant,'  Claverhouse  has  a  title  to  be  con- 

'  Hist.  A/SS.  Com.  Rep.,  XV.  viii.  287.  2  Napier,  Memorials,  ii.  189. 

*  Red  Book  of  ATcnUilh,  ii.  joo,  *  Terry,  218  note  ;  Cameron,  Memoirs,  278,  279. 


296  THE  COVENANTERS 

sidered  the  Episcopal  saint  and  martyr,  which  Sharp  failed  to  be.^ 

No  unprejudiced   historian  could   place  an   aureole   round  the  head 

Sir  Walter       of  Claverhousc.     Even  Sir  Walter  Scott,  when  writing  to  Southey 

Scott's  opinion    jjif  ;„     j^g  Covcnanters— at  least  the  Poundtexts,  Ketdedrummles, 

ofClaverhouse.  J      to 

Mucklewraths,  and  other  oddities  of  his  imagination — actually  con- 
fessed of  his  hero  :  '  I  admit  he  was  tant  soit  peti  savage,  but  he  was  a 
noble  savage ;  and  the  beastly  Covenanters,  against  whom  he  acted, 
hardly  had  any  claim  to  be  called  men,  unless  what  was  founded  on 
their  walking  upon  their  hind  feet.'" 
Personai  None  of  the  biographies  of    '  The  Despot's  Champion '  gives  a 

oTverhouL'  description  of  the  personal  appearance  of  John  Graham,  leaving 
readers  to  form  their  own  opinions  from  the  prepossessing  portraits 
which  enhance  these  works.  The  reason  of  this  is,  that  writers  on  the 
subject  believed  that  there  was  no  delineation  extant  other  than  the 
prejudiced  reference  of  John  Dick,  the  student-martyr  of  5th  March 
1684,  who,  in  his  Testimony,  sneers  at  '  the  pitiful  thing,'  escaping  from 
Drumclog  on  account  of  the  fleetness  of  his  horse,  where  '  there  fell 
prettier  men  on  either  side  than  himself.'^  Obviously  this  was  a  gibe 
at  the  diminutive  and  plain  person  of  the  runaway  from  Drumclog. 
That  Dundee  was  a  very  small  man,  not  more  than  five  feet  six 
inches  in  height,  with  narrow  sloping  shoulders,  is  proved  from  his 
Breastplate  of  breastplate,  preserved  in  Blair  Castle,  and  whose  genuineness  has 
ciaverhouse.  j^gygj.  j^gg^  doubted.  It  measures  but  fifteen  inches  and  a  half  in 
length  from  gorge  to  skirt,  and  only  eighteen  inches  and  a  quarter 
across  its  broadest  part.^  The  fine  portrait  of  this  '  bonny  fighter ' 
when  young,  preserved  in  Melville  House  (Leven  portrait),  and  the 
other  in  Glamis  Castle,  attributed  to  Sir  Peter  Lely,  are  presentations 
of  a  Minerva  rather  than  a  Mars — of  a  soldier  with  a  girl's  face  and  a 
tiger's  heart.  They  do  not  depict  a  Privy  Councillor  who  could  attend 
sanguinary  cases,  incite  and  pass  bloodthirsty  measures  for  shooting 
and  maiming,  drowning  and  abusing  pious  men  and  women.     It  is  to 

'  niackwood's  Magazine,  clxxiv.  4r,  July  1903.  ^  Life  of  Scott,  ii.  134. 

=  'XcYry,frihn  Graham,  86  note  ;  Dick,  The  Testimony  to  the  Doctrine,  etc.  (1684),  n.d. 
*  Lord  Tullibardine  kindly  sent  these  measurements  to  the  author,  19th  February  1907. 


THE  RISE  OF  CLAVERHOUSE  297 

be  remembered,  however,  that  in  the  bloated  epoch  of  the  Stuarts  the 
geese  were  all  swans  to  Lely  and  Kneller.  Even  M'Crie's  descrip- 
tion of  Claverhouse  as  a  '  handsome  bloodhound '  is  but  partly  in 
harmony  with  the  persistent  tradition  of  the  districts  harassed  by  him 
that  he  was  an  ugly  man.  Moray's  statement  to  the  King  in  1685 
that  '  he  knew  Clauerous  to  be  of  a  hye,  proud,  and  peremptor  humour,' 
does  not  necessarily  disagree  with  the  opinion  formed  after  viewing 
the  good-looking  soldier  in  the  Leven  and  Glamis  portraits.  We  are 
fortunate  in  possessing  three  independent  accounts  of  Dundee,  which 
corroborate  this  tradition  of  the  southern  Whigs  that  the  perse- 
cutor was  'a  small  and  fearsome  man,' who  rode  'Satan,'  his  black 
charger,  along  the  face  of  the  precipitous  Stey  Gail,  down  Enterkin 
Pass.  John  Morrison,  a  Terregles  man,  repeated  to  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Morrison's 
as  they  examined  an  unprepossessing  portrait  of  Dundee,  the  following 
account  of  the  exploits  of  Dundee  in  Dumfries  seen  by  Joseph 
Robson  :  '  He  [Claverhouse]  attending  the  murder  of  two  martyrs 
on  the  sands  of  Dumfries,  rode  his  horse  along  the  coping  of  a  parapet 
wall  built  to  guard  off  the  waters  of  the  Nith  in  time  of  floods,  and 
when  the  horse  had  arrived  at  one  end,  he  wheeled  round  on  one  of 
his  hind  legs  as  on  a  pivot,  repeating  the  same  manoeuvre.  His  arms 
were  long,  and  reached  to  his  knees,  his  hair  red  or  frizzly,  and  his 
look  altogether  diabolical.  Such  would  never  be  the  face  that  painters 
love  to  limn  and  ladies  to  look  on,'  added  Morrison.^  This  delineation 
partly  harmonises  with  a  portrait  which  was  recently  sold  in  London, 
and  which,  it  is  said,  Claverhouse  gave  to  David  Bethune  of  Balfour 
in  1 68 1,  as  an  inscription  on  it  bears.  In  this  miniature  he  appears  a 
middle-aged  man  of  sinister,  vulgar  lineaments,  with  red  curly  hair  or 
wig,  clad  in  armour,  and  wearing  a  cravat." 

A   somewhat  similar  account  is  found  in  the  curious,  unreliable 

'  Tail's  Edinburgh  Magazine,  x.  628  ;  '  Stey  Gail '  or  '  Gyle,'  Scots  for  steep  gable. 

^  This  oval  miniature,  measuring  3  by  2J  inches,  was  sold  at  Puttick  and  Simpson's  sale, 
29th  May  1907  (item  71),  to  Colonel  Horace  Walpole,  Heckfield  Place,  Winchfield,  Hants. 
The  inscription  on  the  back  of  the  silver  frame  runs  ;  'John  Graham  of  Claverhouse,  V'iscount 
of  Dundee.  Given  by  himself  to  David  Bethune  of  Balfour  in  i68i.'  Colonel  Walpole  has 
kindly  permitted  a  reproduction  to  be  made  for  this  volume, 

VOL.   II.  2  P 


jqS 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Torfoot's 
delineation. 


A  serving- 
maid's 
reminiscences, 


Memoirs  of  Thomas  Brownlee,  laird  of  Torfoot,  which  first  appeared 
in  the  National  Gazette  in  America.*  The  laird  asserted :  '  I 
distinctly  saw  the  features  and  shape  of  this  far-famed  man.  He  was 
small  of  stature  and  not  well  formed  :  his  arms  were  long  in  propor- 
tion to  his  legs.  He  had  a  complexion  unusually  dark  ...  his  cheeks 
were  lank  and  deeply  furrowed  .  .  .  his  irregular  and  large  teeth  were 
presented  through  a  smile  which  was  very  unnatural  on  his  set  of 
features.  His  mouth  seemed  to  be  unusually  large.  ...  In  short  his 
upper  teeth  projected  over  his  under  lips,  and  on  the  whole  presented 
to  my  view  the  mouth  on  the  image  of  the  Emperor  Julian  the 
Apostate.' 

These  extraordinary  delineations  are  partially  corroborated  by  an 
old  serving-woman,  who  served  Claverhouse  with  wine  in  old  Duffus 
Castle  in  1689.  She  survived  till  1760,  and  described  him  as  'a 
swarthy  litle  man,  with  keen  lively  eyes,  and  black  hair  tinged  with  grey, 
which  he  wore  in  locks  which  covered  each  ear  and  were  rolled  upon 
slips  of  lead,  twisted  together  at  the  end.'"  If  Torfoot  was  right  in 
declaring  that  Claverhouse  bore  '  the  strong  expression  given  by 
our  painters  to  those  on  the  face  of  Judas  Iscariot,'  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  the  Covenanters  saw  Apollyon  himself  in  this  Apollo 
Belvedere  of  the  Royalists.  There  is  disillusionment  in  these  revela- 
tions. Hitherto  Scottish  heroes  have  been  portrayed  in  the  handsome 
mould  and  mien  of  Agamemnon  ;  but  to  conjure  up  a  '  pitiful  thing,' 
diminutive,  choleric,  impertinently  irrepressible,  with  too  long  arms, 
jumping  up  in  Council  to  'box  in  the  ear'  Sir  John  Dalrymple,  creates 
a  shock.  Still  greater  is  the  shock  on  imagining  this  Carolan  dandy 
with  his  locks  in  curls  ;  yet  after  all  it  might  have  been  expected  of  so 
close  an  imitator  of  the  cavalier  Montrose,  who  ascended  the  scaffold 
in  all  the  bravery  of  a  Covent  Garden  coxcomb. 

Little  wonder  that  such  a  horrid  leader,  followed  by  a  troop  of 

'  They  were  copied  into  the  Edinburgh  Christian  Instructor,  in  November  1822.  Cf. 
extracts  in  M'Crie,  Misc.  Writ.,  308,  309  note.  In  the  Edinburgh  Magazine  for  July  1823  a 
writer  declared  this  account  to  be  fictitious.    Brownlee,  Narrative  ...of  Druviclog,  etc.  (1822). 

2  Shaw,  History  of  the  Province  of  Moray,  ii.  84;  Scott.  Rev.,  July  1884,  iv.  116:  'A 
Legend  of  Vanished  Waters'  (Loch  Spynie). 


John  Graham  of  Claverhouse  in  1681 
(Front  the  Portrait  in  f'ossession  oj  Colonel  Horace  Walpole) 


Alexander  Leslie,  hrst  Karl  of  Leven 


The  Market  Cross  of  Edinburgh 


John  Balfour  of  Kinloch  — '  Burly  ' 

iFroiit  a  Portrait  in  possession  0/ 

Mr,  R.  Lauder,  Glasgozv) 


IIolviu.iil   Hulls.-  MonunuMt  lo  'Old  Muit.ilily.'  The  Holm.  Halmaclellan 

PORTRAITS   OF   CLAVEKHOUSK,    LEVEN.   AND    liALFOl'R,    ETC. 


THE  RISE  OF  CLAVERHOUSE  299 

dare-devil  riders,  making  over  hill  and  dale,  as  the  crow  flies,  forty 
or  more  miles,  by  day  or  night,  could  boastingly  report  to  Linlithgow  : 
'  No  body  lays  in  their  bed,  that  knowes  themselfs  any  ways  guilty, 
within  fourty  milles  of  us.'  ^     Three  days  afterwards  Claverhouse  was  ciaverhouse 

-...,,     appointed 

appointed  a  Sheriff-depute  of  Dumfriesshire,  Stewartry  oi  Kirkcud-  sheriff. 
bright  and  Wigtownshire,  the  most  disaffected  area  in  the  country." 
This  untiring  soldier  was  so  punctiliously  careful,  that  nothing  would 
induce  him  to  act  contrary  to  the  minutest  terms  of  his  commission. 
Self-interest  was  his  constant  monitor.^  Turner's  example,  his  reward 
too,  stared  him  in  the  face.  As  soon  as  the  proclamation  of  13th 
May  empowered  all  officers  to  proceed  against  traitors,  Claverhouse 
ofot  the  unlimited  licence  which  satisfied  him. 

At  the  very  time  he  was  vigorously  hunting  down  conventiclers, 
smashing  up  meeting-houses,  and  carrying  off  to  jail  '  old  and  infirm 
men  with  gravel,'  he  stole  leisure  to  think  of  love.^     He  was  one  of 
the  rare  solvent  officers  who  then  could  afford  the  luxury.      He  began 
a  correspondence  with    the  childless,   bankrupt,    adulterous    Earl  of 
Menteith,  whom  he  styled  '  the  last  of  so  noble  a  race." ''     With  an 
assurance  quite  unsurpassed,  Claverhouse  offered  himself  for  the  pur- 
pose of  perpetuating  the  manly  stock  of  Graham  by  marrying  the  heiress 
of  Menteith,  Helen  Graham,  the  Earl's  cousin  ;  and  in  consideration  ciaverhouse's 
of  the  Earl  giving  him  patronage  and  help  to  secure  the  maid,  whom  p°o  '    °^* 
probably  he  never  saw,  and  also  selecting  him  as  heir  to  the  falling 
title,  the  ambitious,  speculating  wooer  agreed  to  settle  a  pension  on 
the  broken  peer.      Like  other  dragoons  he  swore  he  would  take  her  in 
her'smoak.'     The  needy  noble  saw  business  in  the  proposal  which 
the  fair  Helen  rejected.     There  was  another  Graham  in  the  competi- 
tion— Montrose — who  complicated  matters  in  this  sordid  affair.      In 
Helen's  praise,   be   it   said,   she  chose   her  own    match    in   Captain 
Rawdon,  and  kept  her  honour.*     Claverhouse,  in  leading  a  clean  life, 
was  unlike  his  profligate  contemporaries,  and,  with  the  exception  of  the 

1  24th  February  1679  :  Smyth,  Letters  of  John  Graham  (Bann.  Club,  1826),  13. 
-  Ibid.,  i6-iS.  '  Napier,  Memorials,  ii.  189.  ^  Letters,  18. 

'  Red  Book,  ii.  170.  "  Terry,  S4-101. 


300  THE  COVENANTERS 

hint  of  guilty  familiarity  with  Lord  Advocate  Mackenzie's  wife,  in  a 
scurrilous  pasquil  entitled  Mitchell's  Ghost,  there  is  no  impeachment 
of  the  moral  character  of  Claverhouse.' 
Capture  of  Claverhouse  was  soon  in  pursuit  of  Hamilton  and  the  Rutherglen 

conventiciers.  protesters.  He  had  been  recalled  on  some  military  duty,  and  on  his 
route  dispersed  a  conventicle  near  Galashiels,  making  some  notable 
seizures  of  ladies,  and  Thomas  Wilkie,  a  minister."  Close  on  Hamilton's 
party,  he  surprised  and  captured  in  or  near  the  town  of  Hamilton  the 
already  famous  John  King  and  fourteen  suspected  conventiciers, 
whom  he  drao-oed  alone  with  him  'bound  as  beasts.'^  He  reached 
Strathaven  on  Sabbath  the  ist  of  June,  about  six  o'clock  in  the 
morning.  Claverhouse  got  notice  of  a  great  conventicle  mustering 
that  day  on  Glaister  Law  or  Hairlawhill,  some  eight  miles  away  and 
two  miles  from  Darvel.  Blustering  and  boasting  he  rode  to  the  fray. 
He  declared  that  his  men  were  eager  to  fight  the  rogues,  and,  in 
order  to  arouse  this  courage,  he  threatened  to  court-martial  them  if 
they  quailed  in  the  conflict.* 

The  conventiciers,  duly  warned  of  his  approach,  converted  the  sacred 

meeting  into  a  council  of  war,  and  appointed  Hamilton,  apparently 

the  only  man  of  standing  among  them,  to  be  their  commander.      He 

had  no  military  qualifications.      His  first  order  showed  want  of  tact : 

'  L  being  called  to  command  that  day,  gave  out  word  that  no  quarter 

should    be   given.'  ^      The    preacher,   Douglas,  finally  addressed  the 

gathering  and  said  :   '  You  have  got  the  theory,  now  for  the  practice.' 

The  Covenanters  were  marshalled  and  marched  away  singing  psalms 

to  a  suitable  arena  at  Drumclog,  where  the  unarmed  worshippers — 

men,    women,    and    children — were    massed    above    the    combatants 

on    dry    rising   ground    partly   surrounded    by    morasses    impassable 

to  horse. 

Drumclog  and         The  sccnc  of  the  encounter  at  Drumclog,  in  Lanarkshire,  was  the 

Lou  oun    1  .  gj.ggjj  slope  of  a  ridge  stretching    between  two  tracts  of  moorland 

'  Kirkton,  389  note.     Sir  James  Turner  was  credited  with  writing  Mitchell's  Glwst. 

*  Wodrow,  iii.  61.  ^  Short  Memorial,  13  ;  VVodrow,  iii.  94  note. 

*  Letters,  25  (Bann.  Club).  '  Faithful  Contendings,  201. 


THE  RISE  OF  CLAVERHQUSE  301 

overlooked,  at  a  distance  of  two  miles,  by  the  verdant  dun  of  Loudoun 
Hill,  which  also  gave  its  name  to  the  fight.  A  rivulet  on  the 
western  base  of  the  declivity  rendered  the  mead  through  which  it  ran 
spongy  as  the  bog  beyond  it,  and  impassable  to  troopers.  Some  field 
dykes  afforded  defensive  works  to  the  defenders.^ 

The  command  of  Claverhouse  consisted  of  not  more  than  one  Covenanters 
hundred  and  fifty  men.  The  armed  force  under  Hamilton  probably 
numbered  fifty  men  on  horse  and  two  hundred  infantry,  some  of  whom 
carried  swords  and  firearms,  the  rest  being  armed  with  home-made  pikes, 
cleeks  (halberds),  pitchforks,  or  other  rustic  weapons.  The  strength 
on  either  side  has  never  been  precisely  ascertained.  The  officers 
acting  under  Hamilton  were  Hackston,  John  Balfour,  Henry  Hall  of 
Haughhead,  Robert  Fleming,  John  Loudoun,  John  Brown,  and  William 
Cleland.  Cleland,  then  a  brilliant,  belligerent  student  of  St.  Salvator's 
College,  St.  Andrews,  some  eighteen  years  old,  was  a  leader  of  the 
foot,  and  that  day  showed  the  same  prowess  which  distinguished  him 
as  the  commander  of  the  Cameronian  regiment  which  held  Dunkeld 
in  1689.-  The  redoubtable  William  Fergusson  from  Caitloch,  with  a 
troop  of  men  from  the  Vale  of  Cairn,  was  also  there.^  Woe  worth 
the  day  if  the  Whigs  did  not  fight  on  this  occasion ! 

Claverhouse,   leaving    King  and    his  other  prisoners  in  the  rear  Battle  of 

•II-  ■   ■  1      r  J"  a         Drumclog, 

under  a  guard,  reconnoitred  their  position  before  sending  out  a  nag  ,st  june  1679. 
of  truce.      His  demands  were  spurned.      He  had  to  attack.     As  the 
Covenanters  moved  into  a  defensive  position  the  whole  host  raised  a 
cry  to  heaven  in  the  words  of  Asaph  to  the  melody  of  '  Martyrs ' — the 
76th  Psalm:   '  In  Judah's  land  God  is  well  known,'  with  its  menacing 

'  The  authorities  consulted  for  this  sketch  are  :  Claverhouse,  Letter  to  Linlithgow,  ist  June 
1679  :  Napier,  Memorials^  ii.  220-3  ;  a-'so  in  Laud.  Pap.,  iii.  164 ;  Russell's  'Account '  in  Kirkton, 
442  ;  Aiton,  Hist.,  53  ;  Wodrow,  iii.  69,  94  note ;  Terry,  John  Graham,  52  ;  Morris,  Claver- 
house, 65  ;  Barbe,  Viscount  Dundee,  48  ;  The  Despot's  Champion,  43  ;  Burton,  Hist.,  vii. 
224;  Nisbet,  Diary:  M'Crie,  FaVir/i,  455-61,  519  ;  Thomson,  Martyr  Graves,  ■^i  ;  Ayrshire 
Ballads,  51  ;  Nimmo,  Narrative,  12;  Dodds,  Fifty  Years,  239;  Defoe,  pt.  iii.  238;  Paget, 
Paradoxes,  I2i  ;  Fleming,  Six  Saints,  i.  86,  125,  241,  298  ;  ii.  144,  148,  215,  216,  224  :  Scott, 
Old  Mortality,  notes;  Add.  MSS.  (Brit.  Mus.),  2J244  ;  Faithful  Contendings,  201.  The 
photograph  in  this  volume  was  taken  by  Mr.  J.  C.  Montgomerie  in  August  1907. 

^  Cleland  entered  college  2nd  March  1677  ;  Wilson,  A  True  and  Impartial  Relation, 
etc.,  8  (1797). 

*  Smith's  '  Information  '  in  A  True  Account  and  Declaration  (of  Rye  House  Plot),  1685. 


^02 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Defeat  and 

flight  of 
Claverhouse. 


finish — 'By  Him  the  sp'rits  shall  be  cut  off.''  That  they  stood 
under  '  The  Bluidy  Banner,'  a  flag  inscribed  with  vindictive  threats, 
is  a  modern  fiction  already  disposed  of."  Advance  parties  answered 
each  other's  fusils  across  the  morass  and  ditch  separating  the  com- 
batants, until  Claverhouse  extended  some  dismounted  men  in  firing 
order  and  thus  endeavoured  to  make  an  impression  on  his  well-posted 
foe.  This  destructive  fusillade  in  time  would  have  succeeded  had  not 
the  Covenanters,  realising  the  disadvantage  they  suffered  from  their 
obsolete  weapons,  returned  to  the  old  method  of  warfare.  Cleland, 
Dingwall,  Weir,  on  horse,  and  others  on  foot,  joined  by  some  gallant 
women,  leaped  the  dyke  and  ditch  and  made  a  wild  rush  through  the 
harmless  smoke  upon  the  royal  troops,  whose  firing  had  been  futile. 
This  fierce  onset  of  horse,  men,  and  Amazons,  with  sword,  pike,  and 
pitchfork  at  the  push,  was  too  much  for  troopers  who  could  not  manage 
their  horses  in  the  bog.  Fleming's  ugly  pike,  long  preserved  at 
Stonehouse,  ripped  up  the  '  sorre  '  horse  of  Claverhouse,  which,  as  he 
implies,  being  infuriated,  carried  him  a  mile  off  the  field,  so  that  his 
men  were  cowed  and  fled  too.^  However  explained,  the  white  plume 
of  Seneffe  was  the  white  feather  at  Drumclog.  He  left  thirty  of  his 
comrades  dead  on  the  moss  and  twelve  fell  at  his  side  in  the  flight. 
Cowardice  in  him  and  his  men  is  proved  by  the  smallness  of  the 
number  of  the  peasantry  who  fell — one  slain  and  five  mortally 
wounded.  Had  Claverhouse  been  a  gallant  soldier  he  would  have 
faced  his  pursuers  on  a  fair  field.  Far  otherwise,  Sergeant  James 
Nisbet  boasted  of  slaying  seven  troopers  that  day.^  The  Covenanters 
recorded  the  prowess  of  Thomas  Weir  of  Cummerhead,  who  captured 
a  royal  standard  which  was  afterwards  retaken,  and  who,  though 
wounded,  continued  pursuing.  According  to  Defoe,  young  Cleland 
actually  seized   the  bridle  of   Claverhouse's    horse,  and  would    have 


'  The  same  psalm  was  sung  by  Robert  Bruce  at  Edinburgh  Market  Cross  when  news  of 
the  dispersal  of  the  Armada  arrived  :  at  Douglas  Cross  by  Alexander  Shields  and  the  Cove- 
nanters at  the  Revolution  of  1688  ;  Rrownlee  (Torfoot),  Narrative,  6. 

^  Cf.  Dr.  Hay  Fleming's  Six  Suin/s,  ii.  216.     Many  genuine  flags  are  preserved. 

^  Some  have  mistaken  Claverhouse's  'sorre'  (miserable)  charger  for  a  sorrel. 

■•  M'Crie,  VeiicA,  519. 


THE  RISE  OF  CLAVERHOUSE  303 

taken  him  had  he  been  supported.'  William  Dingwall  was  mortally 
wounded,  his  horse  having  fallen  as  he  gallantly  leaped  the  defences 
to  join  Cleland's  victorious  foot.  According  to  Russell,  his  associate 
in  the  slaying  of  the  archbishop,  Dingwall,  when  dying,  was  so  ravished 
with  joy  in  his  assurance  of  glory  in  Heaven,  that  his  Testimony 
often  constrained  sympathisers  to  visit  his  grave  in  Strathaven,  where 
they  sat  and  wept.'  The  Covenanters  killed  were  buried  in  local 
churchyards^ — Thomas  Fleming  in  Loudoun,  John  Morton  and  John 
Gebbie  in  Newmilns,  Dingwall  in  Strathaven,  James  Thomson  in 
Stonehouse,  and  Thomas  Weir  in  Lesmahagow.^  As  Claverhouse 
galloped  for  life,  his  facetious  prisoner,  King,  cried  after  him  to  stay 
for  the  afternoon  sermon. 

The  victors  captured  and  gave  quarter  to  a  few  prisoners.     There 

was   one   exception,    which    Hamilton    'reckoned   amongst    our   first 

stepping  asyde.'*     On  Hamilton's  return  from  the  pursuit,  he  found  a 

group  of  fighters  debating  whether  a  certain  prisoner  should  receive 

the  promised  grace  or  not.     They  referred  the  matter  to  their  leader. 

The  merits  of  the  case  are  not  available  to  show  what  the  wretch  was 

— soldier,  informer,  or  deserter.     The   order  of  the  day  being  '  No  Hamilton  and 

Quarter,'  Hamilton  had  no  alternative,  if  the  council  of  war  was  to  Quarter ' order. 

be  authoritative  among  them,  and   sent  '  that  poor  man '  to  death. 

He   afterwards  justified   his   verdict  :    '  Non[e]    could    blame   me   to 

decide  the   controversie,  and   I   bless   the   Lord   for  it  to  this  day.' 

Extremists  of  this  type  maintained  that  the  refusal  to  shed  the  blood 

of  God's  enemies  was  the  cause  of  the  curses  resting  on  the  unhappy 

Church.^    The  tale  of  the  mutilation  of  Cornet  Robert  Graham's  body, 

mistaken  for  that  of  Claverhou.se,  and  the  reports  of  the  indignities 

shown   to   the   fallen   before  the  barricades  in  Glasgow,  and  of  the 

enormities  practised  by  the  Whigs  on  bodies  in  Glasgow  Cathedral, 

may  all  be  dismissed  as  fabrications." 

The  beaten  persecutor  reached  Glasgow  that  night,  and  sat  down 

'  Memoirs,  240.                  -'  Kirkton,  446.  =  Qf  Tliomson,  Martyr  Graves,  Index. 

*  Six  Saints,  ii.  216  note.  ^  Ibid.,  77. 

*  Kirkton,  442;  Terry,   57   note;    Woclrow,  iii.  71;    Napier,    Memorials,    iii.    229   note; 
Creichton,  Memoirs. 


304  THE  COVENANTERS 

'so  wearied  and  so  sleapy,'  to  write  the  dispatch  notifying,  'very  con- 
fusedly,' his  defeat  to  the  Commander-in-Chief,  which,  dated  ist  June, 
was  evidently  finished  next  morning.^ 
The  march  of  With  the  arch-encmy  of  their  cause  buried  and  the  most  terrible 

t  emsurgens.  ^j-  ^j^^jj.  oppressors  humiliated,  the  credulous  insurgents  vainly  im- 
agined themselves  to  be  compelling  a  blessing  from  a  pleased  God, 
and  deemed  it  their  duty  to  follow  up  their  advantage.  After  a  halt 
at  Strathaven  and  a  sleep  in  Hamilton  they  marched  to  Glasgow. 
Lord  Ross  had  barricaded  the  central  district  of  the  city,  and  with 
the  garrison  stood  to  arms.  The  insurgents  appeared  on  Monday, 
2nd  June,  before  noon."  Without  artillery  Hamilton  found  it  impos- 
sible to  force  Ross's  defences ;  and  the  gallant  attacks  by  Balfour, 
Hackston,  and  other  bold  fighters,  met  by  the  sure  fusillade  of  the 
ensconced  soldiery,  ended  in  the  discomfiture  of  the  assailants  and  the 
loss  of  lives.  Consequently  they  were  compelled  to  retreat  to  their 
camp  at  Bothwell  Bridge  and  wait  for  reinforcements  and  munitions 
of  war,  amd  the  help  of  God. 
ciaverhouse's  Claverhouse  concluded  his  dispatch  in  these  terms:   'The  country 

dispatch.  ^^^  floking  to  them  from  all  hands  :  this  may  be  counted  the  beginning 
of  the  rebellion  in  my  opinion.'  The  Council  thought  similarly,  pro- 
claimed the  victors  of  Drumclog  traitors,  ordered  Linlithgow  and  the 
regulars  to  march  west,  and  mustered  the  King's  host,  including  the 
'Highland  Amorites '  of  Argyle.  English  reinforcements  were  pro- 
mised. Ross  left  Glasgow  and  met  Linlithgow  at  Kilsyth  on  5th 
June.  Hearing  of  the  strength  of  his  opponents,  Linlithgow  deemed 
it  prudent  to  withdraw  his  force  of  1800  men  to  Stirling,  whence,  on 
an  order  from  the  Council,  they  came  to  Edinburgh.^  As  soon  as 
news  of  the  rising  reached  London,  the  Duke  of  Monmouth,  the 
King's  illegitimate  son,  received  a  commission  to  quell  the  rising  with 
the  aid  of  English  soldiers  and  guns. 

The  insurgents,  on  the  retiral  of  Ross,  entered  Glasgow  and  burned 

'   It  has  been   reprinted  often,  c.i,'.  Napier,  Mcvwriah,  ii.  220  ;  Martyr  Craves,  34  ;  Scott, 
Old  Mortality,  notes.     Cf.  Stowe  MSS.,  142  ;  Brit.  Mus.  Cat.,  loi.  No.  61. 

-  Ross  to  Linlithgow,  2nd  June  1679  :  Laud.  Pap.,  iii.  166;  Add.  MSS.,  23244. 
'  Wodrow,  iii.  72-4  notes,  84  note  ;  Laud.  Pap.,  iii.  168,  169. 


THE  RISE  OF  CLAVERHOUSE  305 

the  mansions  of  the  prelates  and  Lauderdale.^     The  Covenanters,  in 
passing  to  their  rendezvous,  had  by  the  way  bloody  scuffles  with  the 
garrisons  and  militia.     The  men  of  Ayrshire  on  the  march  removed 
the  heads  of  those  who  suffered  for  the  rising  of  '66  from  the  Tolbooth 
spikes  in  Ayr,  Irvine,  Kilmarnock,  and  Glasgow.     The  rebellious  host 
fluctuated  between  five  and  eight  thousand  men.     It  was  composed 
of  four  distinct  classes,  each   a  menace  to  the   other.      The  victors  victors  in 
under  Hamilton,  with  the  ministers,  Cargill,    Douglas,   Kemp,  were 
the  uncompromising  opponents  of  the  existing  politico-ecclesiastical 
system,  and  avowing  the  tenets  of  Richard  Cameron,  were  ready  to 
adventure  on   action   damaging  to   Malignant    and    Indulged   alike." 
The   moderate  Presbyterians,   King  and  others,  soon   to  be  largely 
reinforced   by  Welsh   and    the    men    of    Carrick,    Gordon,    and    the 
Galloway  outlaws,  Ure  of  Shargarton  and  the  Stirlingshire  stalwarts, 
and  others,  came  into  camp  willing  to  assist   in  restoring  freedom,  I'o"'^  p^"^''" 
spiritual  and  civil ;  and,  while  antagonistic  to  the  Indulgence,  tolerated 
all  the  Indulged  who  safeguarded  Presbyterial  principles.     There  was 
a  more  peaceable  section  still,  little  represented  however,  who  held 
with    Blackadder   and    Eraser  of   Brea  that    '  the   Lord  called  for  a 
testimony  by  suffering  rather  than  outward  deliverance.'^     There  was 
a  fourth,  the  worst  class,  the  indifferent  and  ungodly  associates,  who 
joined    expecting   loot   and  a  chance   to  fight  where   there  was    no 
danger.     Of  this    order   was    Alexander   Mackinnan,    pipemaker  in 
Glasgow,    who    fought    at    Bothwell,    robbed    ministers,    and    being 
brought  to  justice,  got  his  ears  nailed  to  a  post  and  himself  banished 
in  1680.*     In  order  to  maintain  discipline  the  officers  of  the  Cove- 
nanting host  found  it  necessary  to  shoot  a  Glasgow  butcher,  named 
Watson,  who  drove  a  pitchfork  through  a  godly  brother,  and  they 
also  nailed  a  thief  by  the  ear  to  the  local  gallows.*^ 

'  state  Papers  (Charles  n.),  412,  268  ;  Dr.  James  Colville,  '  Claverhouse  in  Glasgow,'  in 
the  Glasgow  Herald^  3rd  and  loth  February  igo6. 

2  M'Crie,  Uri^s  Narr.,  470. 

=  Blackadder's  son,  Dr.  William,  was  at  Bothwell  Bridge  :  Blackadder,  Memoirs,  220 ; 
Select  Biog.,  ii.  336. 

*  Reg.  Sec.  Cone,  Dec,  379,  4th  June  16S0.  °  M'Crie,  Ure's  Narr.,  460  ;  Kirkton,  457. 

VOL.  n.  2  Q 


3o6 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Hamilton, 
'  feckless ' 
general. 


Divided 
councils. 


Hamilton  was  not  the  man  of  Napoleonic  genius  qualified  to 
manage  this  incongruous,  incoherent  mob.  His  active  policy  of 
purgation  might  have  turned  out  well  had  Cromwell  been  there  to 
drill  the  holy  remnant  into  irresistible  Ironsides.  There  was  no 
chance  of  a  miracle.  There  was  not  a  leader  of  any  calibre  to 
marshal  that  immense  conventicle  of  wrangling  theologians,  unless 
we  except  the  dauntless  veteran  of  the  Civil  Wars  and  of  Rullion 
Green — Captain  John  Paton  of  Meadowhead,  who,  with  the  men  of 
Fenwick,  Newmilns,  and  Galston,  joined  Hamilton  after  the  affair  at 
the  barricades.  Instead  of  entrenching  a  leaguer,  gathering  muni- 
tions, appointing  officers,  the  leaders  turned  the  camp  into  a  general 
assembly  of  the  hottest  heads.  Like  stump  orators  the  perfervid 
demagogues  carried  their  pulpits  with  them.  One  little  brass  gun 
filched  from  Douglas  Castle,  with  a  few  charges,  was  all  their 
artillery.  Both  zealots  and  moderates  desired  to  promulgate  a  new 
declaration  similar,  and  supplementary,  to  that  of  Rutherglen,  but  as 
the  age  of  building  platforms  suitable  for  differing  sections  had  not 
emerged,  and  every  would-be  leader  there  had  a  stand  of  his  own, 
the  fabrication  of  a  manifesto  was  so  difficiilt  that  over  it  arose  angry 
shoutings,  rude  jostling,  forcible  evictions  from  the  pulpits,^  and 
threats  of  cold  steel.  The  councils  of  war  afforded  the  splitters  of 
hairs  the  opportunity  of  producing  internecine  dissensions.  The 
Rutherglen  paper  was  unknown  to  many  newcomers,  and,  on  account 
of  its  extreme  attitude  to  the  Indulgence,  required  modification  to  suit 
the  views  of  Welsh,  David  Hume  of  Coldingham,  William  Fergusson 
of  Caitloch,  and  others,  whose  aim  was  to  unite  parties  on  the  broad 
basis  of  Presbyterianism.  At  a  meeting  held  at  Glasgow  in  June  the 
Hamilton-Cargill  party  mustered  so  strongly  that  the  Welshites  only 
succeeded  in  getting  the  terms  of  the  Rutherglen  protest  against  the 
Indulgence  modified  into  the  phrase  'declaring  against  popery, 
prelacy,  erastianism,  and  all  things  depending  therupon.'^  Enough 
for  all  save  splitters  of  hairs,  harmonising  with  the  stereotyped 
principles  of  Knox  and  Melville,  almost  like  ecclesiastical  papers  of 

'  These  portable  pulpits  were  called  '  tents.'  -  Wodrow,  iii.  91. 


THE  RISE  OF  CLAVERHOUSE  307 

our  day  for  delightful  vagueness,  this  equivocal  compromise  would  not 
do  for  the  Welshites. 

The  Hamiltonians,  in  the  spirit  of  Guthrie,  wished  a  day  ofxheHamii- 
mourning  to  avert  the  Divine  wrath.  Their  opponents  opposed  the  extremists. 
formation  of  a  schedule  in  which  their  sins  and  defections  were  sure 
to  be  entered  along  with  Restoration  rejoicings,  cess,  supremacy, 
indulgence,  and  the  compromises  made  by  the  Moderates  for  peace's 
sake.  The  list  staggered  Welsh,  who,  as  a  constitutionalist,  protested 
that  the  enumeration  of  ecclesiastical  offences  was  the  function  of  the 
General  Assembly  only.  Sin  was  sin  whatever  the  Church  might 
say,  was  the  answer  of  Hamilton  and  Cargill.  who  held  that  if  there 
was  to  be  co-operation,  the  ministry  led  by  Welsh  should  denounce 
the  sin  in  the  Indulgence.  Hamilton,  for  the  council  of  his  party, 
went  so  far  as  to  send  a  peremptory  order  to  the  Moderate  preachers 
to  preach  against  the  Indulgence.  The  latter  thought  this  interfer- 
ence an  intolerable  illustration  of  Erastianism  as  sinful  as  the  acts  of 
their  common  foe.     Parties  would  not  mourn  together.' 

The  Moderates  proposed  a  civil  declaration  to  the  effect  that  their  The 
insurrection  against  the  Government  was  not  a  proof  of  disloyalty. 
They  were  monarchists.  The  Hamiltonians  could  neither  reconcile 
this  with  their  own  declaration  nor  with  their  repugnance  to  a  King 
who  had  broken  the  Covenant  and  other  vows,  ruined  and  dis- 
established the  Church,  slaughtered  the  godly,  and  waged  war  on  his 
people.  They  would  abide  by  that  declaration  which  left  the  question 
of  allegiance  open.  Theirs  was  the  manly  maintenance  of  a  sacred 
contract  against  which  the  arguments  of  expediency  could  not 
prevail. 

During  these  wranglings  some  sympathisers  with  the  insurgents.  The  Hamilton 
apprehensive  of  Hamilton's  incapacity,  deemed  it  advisable  to  frame  a  tionfisth /une 
tentative  declaration,  which,  through  the  agency  of   Robert  Wylie,  '679- 
minister  of  Hamilton,   then  a   prisoner  in   Edinburgh,   and  William 
Dunlop,    afterwards    principal    of  the    University   of  Glasgow,    was 
conveyed  to  the  Moderates.      Its  strong  terminology  pleased  Welsh  ; 

'  Wodrow,  iii.  91,  92. 


;o8 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Import  of  the 
manifesto. 


Arrival  of 
Monmouth 
and  an  army. 


for  lack  of  a  definition  of  specific  evils  it  was  abjured  by  Hamilton. 
Welsh  utilised  the  document  in  framing  the  new  Hamilton  declara- 
tion, which  a  majority  passed  before  it  was  affixed  to  the  Cross  in 
Hamilton.  The  minority — Hamilton-Cargillites— intended  amending 
it  by  adding  references  to  the  public  defections,  and  they  were  dis- 
appointed, if  not  outwitted,  on  the  appearance  of  the  declaration  in 
print  in  Glasgow  on  13th  June.' 

The  declaration  narrates  the  woeful  state  of  the  land  and  Church 
through  the  brutal  execution  of  the  laws,  and  the  refusal  of  redress 
from  the  magistrates,  so  that  a  defensive  rising  was  necessary  :  the 
aim  of  the  insurgents  was  (i)  the  preservation  of  the  Church,  Pro- 
testant, Presbyterian,  Covenanted,  with  its  legal  standards  ;  (2)  the 
maintenance  and  defence  of  the  King ;  (3)  the  obtaining  of  a  free 
Parliament  and  a  free  Assembly.  This  manifesto  did  not  heal  the 
divisions.  Hamilton  declared  that  association  with  favourers  of  the 
Indulgence  would  bring  the  malison  of  God,  who  had  signally  owned 
the  Precisians  at  Drumclog.  Another  week's  wrangling  and  rioting 
demoralised  the  undisciplined  crowd.  Many  sympathisers  with  the 
Covenanters'  cause  went  home  disaffected. 

Meantime  the  timid  Government  took  heart  and  equipped  the 
army.  Monmouth  arrived  in  Edinburgh  on  the  i8th  June,  next  day 
joined  the  army  at  Blackburn,  and  on  Saturday  evening,  21st,  lay 
with  ten  thousand  men  before  Bothwell  Bridge."  Linlithgow  com- 
manded the  infantry  division.  Dalyell  was  overlooked,  and  left  at  Binns 
to  comb  his  monumental  beard  till,  too  late  for  the  battle,  he  got  his 
commission.  The  extremists  following  Hamilton  had  already  secured 
the  appointment  of  officers — Balfour,  Hackston,  Paton,  Henderson, 
Hall,  Carmichael,  Cleland,  Fowler,  and  Major  Learmonth— with 
Cargill,  Douglas,  Kemp,  and  others  as  armed  chaplains.  The  arrival 
on  the  20th  of  a  Galloway  contingent  of  Welshites  one  thousand 
strong  led  to  a  discussion  as  to  the  advisability  of  selecting  other 

'  state  Papers,  412  ;  IVodrow  MSS.,  xxxiii.  7  ;  Wodrow,  iii.  96  ;  Laing  MSS.,  89,  102— 
'  The  Declaration  of  the  Presbyterians  now  in  Armes  in  t/ie  IVest' ;   The  Scots  Worthies,  398. 

'  Add.  MSS.,  lyi^^.  No.  12,  Privy  Council  to  Lauderdale,  loth  June,  gives  10,000  men  at 
Shotts ;  Blackadder,  224,  gives  15,000  men. 


THE  RISE  OF  CLAVERHOUSE  309 

officers.  Quarrelling  resulted.  The  newcomers  were  willing  to 
abide  by  the  Hamilton  declaration  and  to  refer  differences  to  a  new 
Parliament  and  Assembly  :  the  Hamiltonians  desired  dissociation 
from  Indulgers.  Thus  the  quarrel  stood  as  the  advance-guard  of  the 
Royalists,  on  the  21st,  had  an  outpost  affair  at  a  ford  east  of  Hamilton 
and  mortally  shot  James  Cleland.^  That  day  a  great  council  of  war 
was  held,  and  the  Hamilton  party  left  the  meeting  in  a  body.^  The 
Covenanters  had  become  distrait,  and,  by  their  preoccupying  infatua- 
tion, were  blinded  to  the  fact  that  their  opponents  were  at  hand. 

The  appointment   of  Monmouth,  a  Protestant,  instructed  to  act  The  Duke  of 

.  ,  ,  .  ,       .  1  •    •  T^        1-   1.  Monmouth, 

With  toleration,  gave  a  new  complexion  to  the  crisis.  nnglisn  1649.1685. 
sympathisers  with  the  persecuted  forwarded  communications  advising 
the  insurgents  to  negotiate  with  Monmouth,  '  who  would  take  it 
kindly.'^  Monmouth  himself,  through  Melville,  made  known  his  own 
kindly  intentions  and  desire  of  peace,  and  promised  good  terms.*  His 
power  was  unlimited,  and  he  had  authority  to  pardon  all  except  the 
forfeited  and  the  slayers  of  Sharp.  Ultimately  the  contending  parties 
agreed  to  forward  a  bare  representation  of  the  facts  of  the  case  to  the 
Duke,  and  Cargill  was  one  of  a  committee  appointed  to  revise  the 
draft.  The  document  is  a  cultured  address  to  the  'potent  prince,' 
whose  presence  was  declared  to  be  '  a  most  favourable  providence,' 
containing  a  simple  request  for  liberty  to  send  a  deputation  to  give 
a  true  account  of  their  deplorable  sufferings.  It  is  signed,  '  R. 
Hamiltoune  in  name  of  the  Covenanted  Army  now  in  armes.''"'  An 
angel  might  honestly  have  subscribed  it. 

As  Sabbath  morning,  the  22nd  June,  broke,  Hamilton's  pickets  Bothweii 
saw  the  Royalist  musketeers  across  the  Clyde  blowing  their  matches 
and    ready   for    the    advance    to    the    bridge    at    Bothweii.       The 
Covenanters,  through   their  wranglings  reduced   in    number   to  four 
thousand  badly  armed  men,  were  drawn  up  in  two  bodies,  the  smaller 

1  Kirkton,  463.  '  I/re's  Narr.,  t\Ti- 

'   Wodrow  AfSS.,  xxxiii.  8  ;  Wodrow,  iii.  loi. 

*  Ure's  Narr.,  474  note  ;  M'Crie,  Veitdi,  no  ;  Act.  Pari.  Scot.,  viii.  App.  57. 
'  'Original  document,' ^(/r/.  JfSS.,  23251,  fol.  22;   23244,  fol.  14;   Laud.  Pap.,  iii.  260; 
Wodrow,  iii.  105  ;  Kirkton,  465  ;  Wilson,  A  True  ami  Impartial  Relation,  etc.,  39  (Glas.,  1797). 


3IO 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Skirmishes 
and  truces. 


The  fight  at 
Bothwell 
Bridge, 

Sabliath,  22nd 
June  1679. 


battalion  near  the  bridge,  and  the  main  body  on  high  ground  near  the 
Little  Park,  Hamilton.^  The  fine  old  narrow  bridge  with  its  guard- 
house and  toll-bar,  when  barricaded  with  stones,  and  adjacent  dwelling- 
houses,  were  an  ideal  strength  for  the  brave  defenders,  none  braver 
than  Hackston,  Hall,  Turnbull  of  the  horse,  and  Fowler  and  Ross  oi 
the  foot.  The  little  brass  piece  defended  the  approach.  The  men  of 
Stirling,  Clydesdale,  and  Galloway,  the  latter  brave  with  banners  and 
terrible  with  pikes  and  halberds,  stood  on  the  south  side  of  the  bridge, 
Hackston  being  in  command  on  the  left  side,  near  the  houses  at 
Bridgend. 

By  seven  o'clock  Monmouth's  force  was  marshalled  along  the 
north  side  of  the  Clyde,  before  the  bridge,  and  some  skirmishing  took 
place.  During  the  preliminary  confusion  consequent  on  this  advance 
William  Blackadder,  bearing  the  address  to  Monmouth,  accosted 
Hamilton  and  got  him  to  sign  what  he  said  he  had  not  read,  but 
took  on  trust  as  the  work  of  Cargill.-  Two  envoys  with  a  drummer, 
the  former  said  to  be  David  Hume,  minister,  and  William  Fergusson 
of  Caitloch — -other  authorities  mention  Welsh,  Captain  M'Culloch, 
Murdoch — crossed  the  bridge  carrying  the  address.^  The  drum  of 
truce  returned  to  Hamilton,  who,  learning  that  Monmouth  would  only 
treat  with  the  Whigs  if  they  first  laid  down  their  arms,  cynically 
replied,  'and  hang  next.'^  In  turn  Monmouth  asked  for  Hamilton's 
ultimatum,  which  was  '  no  surrender.' 

The  English  park  of  artillery  was  trained  on  the  bridge  and  the 
foe,  and  when  the  gunners  fired,  the  musketeers  and  the  brass  piece 
replied  with  such  effect  that  the  timid  Royalists  abandoned  the  guns. 
Incredible  to  tell,  there  was  no  brave  Dingwall  ready  to  leap  the 
barricade  and  spike  the  guns.  They  were  manned  again,  and  soon 
made  a  way  for  the  pioneers.  Hackston,  Ure  of  Shargarton,  and  the 
men  of  Kippen  and  Galloway  clung  to  their  posts  for  two  hours  or 
more,  calling  out  for  supports  and  ammunition,  and  being  supplied 


'  Burnet,  Hist.,  ii.  240.  "-  Faithful  Contcndings,  195. 

•'  Blackadder,  225  ;  Wodrow,  iii.   106  ;   Urcs  Nair.,  466  ;  Terry,  John  Graham,  74  note 
(citing  Smith,  Account,  119).  *  Ure's  Nai>.,  477. 


■>s 


<, 


^ 

•^ 


THE  RISE  OF  CLAVERHOUSE  311 

with  raisins,  till  they  were  forced  to  retire,  with  'sore  hearts,'  fighting 
as  they  retreated.  Hamilton  practically  forbade  a  rally.  Had  he 
not  been  both  incompetent  and  in  the  sulks,  he  would  have  reinforced 
the  heroes,  who,  with  a  keg  of  powder,  might  have  blown  the  bridge 
into  the  river.  On  a  rising  ground  on  the  edge  of  the  moorland, 
where  the  great  public  gibbet  of  the  Nether  Ward  of  Lanark  stood, 
was  posted  the  sullen  horde  of  conventiclers,  without  a  leader,  helpless 
as  a  drove  of  sheep,  while  the  army  of  Monmouth,  headed  by  himself, 
marched  across  the  bridge  in  unbroken  order.  Linlithgow  was  colonel 
of  the  foot-guards  ;  Montrose  was  colonel  of  the  horse-guards.  On 
the  first  discharge  of  the  cannon,  the  horses  on  both  wings  of  the 
insurgents'  main  body  grew  restive  and  stampeded,  and  before  ten 
men  were  killed  in  the  action  the  foot  was  disordered  as  well.^ 

It  was  now  ten  o'clock.  Monmouth  loosed  the  cavalry  under  stampede  of 
Oglethorpe,  Maine,  and  Claverhouse,  and  their  thirsty  swords  com-  '"'™*"  "*• 
pleted  the  debacle.  Hamilton  was  the  first  to  flee  ;  Claverhouse  was 
among  the  last  to  quit  the  scene  of  slaughter,  where  he  '  and  his 
troop,  mad  for  blood,  did  the  most  cruel  execution.'^  '  When  we  fled 
there  was  not  ten  men  killed  of  us  all,'  Ure  recorded.^  Some  fugitives 
who  sought  safety  in  the  parish  church  of  Hamilton  were  butchered 
in  the  sacred  edifice.*  Before  the  dragoons  could  be  got  to  desist 
from  slaying,  some  '  were  knocked  down  by  gentlemen  of  the  life- 
guard.'^ From  Hackston's  account  of  the  fight  we  learn  that  after  he 
and  the  other  defenders  of  the  bridge  had  been  compelled  to  fall  back 
upon  the  main  body  of  Covenanters,  and,  as  the  Royalist  troops  filed 
across  the  bridge,  there  was  a  movement  of  the  Covenanters,  which 
was  checked  by  the  cry  that  their  officers  had  deserted  them.  This 
was  followed  by  a  stampede  of  two  troops  of  horse  under  Thomas 
Weir  of  Greenrig,  formerly  a  trooper  under  Dalyell  at  Pentland, 
apparently  done  wilfully  to  disorder  the  ranks  of  the  infantry,  as  well 
in  the  main  body  as  in  the  reserve,  on  the  left  wing. 


6 


'   Ure's  NaiK,  483.  ''  Blackadder,  Memoirs,  ii-].  ^  M'Crie,  Veitch,  483. 

''  Dr.  John  Wilson,  Duiining,  its  P<irochial  History,  ib  (citing  Secession  Magazine). 
'•'  Blackadder,  Memoirs,  228.    Major  RoUo  captured  a  flag  now  preserved  in  Duncrub  House. 
"  Hackston  to  Mac  Ward,  Failhful  Contendings,  199,  200  note. 


312  THE  COVENANTERS 

Credit  was  given  to  Peden,  far  away  on  the  Borders,  for  seeing  a 
vision  which  made  him  refuse  to  preach,  and  constrained  him  to  send 
the  people  to  pray,  as  he  saw  the  soldiers  '  hagging  and  hashing  them 
down  and  their  blood  is  running  like  water.'  ^  It  is  not  to  the  credit 
of  the  hair-splitting  heroes  that  all  escaped  with  sound  skins,  excepting 
Balfour,  who  was  shot  in  the  thigh,  and  Cargill,  who  was  left  for  dead 
on  the  field  and  miraculously  escaped  death.  Hamilton  and  his  craven 
staff  slept  in  Loudoun  Castle  that  night.  Kid  was  caught  in  the  first 
bog.  Many  of  the  fugitives  found  refuge  in  the  woods  round  Hamilton. 
Some  innocent  persons  were  killed  in  the  chase.^  Monmouth  personally 
did  not  follow  far,  and  mercifully  restrained  the  pursuers.  On  riding  to 
Crookedstone,  near  West  Quarter,  the  dragoons  met  and  slew  William 
Gordon  of  Earlston,  a  notorious  old  conventicler,  returned  exile,  and 
outlaw,  on  his  way  to  join  his  son,  Alexander,  who  married  Janet, 
only  sister  of  Robert  Hamilton.^  Alexander  fled  into  a  house  in 
Hamilton,  and  disguising  himself  as  a  woman  rocking  a  cradle, 
escaped  the  searchers.*  Hundreds  were  slain  in  town  and  field.* 
Few  Royalists  fell. 
Surrender  of  A    large    body    of  the    Covenanters,    seemingly  converted    to  a 

policy  of  non-resistance,  gave  up  their  arms  without  striking  a  blow. 
According  to  Blackadder,  '  after  the  retreat  was  sounded  they  fell  on 
taking  prisoners,  which  were  above  twelve  hundred  on  the  place,  who 
were  all  gathered  together  about  a  gallows  that  stood  there,  and  kept 
in  that  place  all  night  (and  made  to  lye  flat  on  their  faces  on  the 
ground)  with  a  strong  guard.'"     He  also   mentions   the  barbarities 

*  Six  Saints,  i.  53.  '  Wodrow,  iii.  108,  109. 

'  His  tombstone  in  Glassford  churchyard  bears  that  he  was  sixty-five  years  of  age  : 
Martyr  Graves,  253.  *  Croolishanks,  Hist.,  ii.  15. 

'  The  numbers  of  slain  and  prisoners  are  variously  stated  :  Wodrow  gives  See  killed  and 
1 100  taken;  Creichton,  700  or  800,  and  1500;  Burnet  between  200  and  300,  and  1200; 
Blackadder,  400  and  1200  ;  Law,  800  and  300.  The  figment  found  in  Creichton's  Memoirs 
(p.  34),  that  the  Whigs  had  the  gibbet  and  a  cart-load  of  ropes  ready  to  hang  the  Royalists 
wholesale,  is  a  piece  of  Swift's  delightful  sarcasm.  Yet  the  'carts'  disturbed  the  sober 
judgment  of  Hill  Burton  {Hist.,  vii.  233),  and  the  'new  ropes'  similarly  affected  Mr.  Andrew 
Lang  {Hist.,  iii.  353).  The  head  of  the  moor,  at  the  junction  of  Muir  Street  with  Bothwell 
Road  and  Almada  Street,  is  still  known  as  'Gallowhill'  and  '  Gallowsknowe,' and  as  the 
locality  where  the  Nether  Ward  gibbet  always  stood.  **  Pages  228-9. 


a  craven  mob. 


THE  RISE  OF  CLAVERHOUSE  313 

with  which  they  were  treated.  They  were  stripped.  The  wounded 
were  prevented  getting  water,  until  some  humane  officers  interfered. 
Monmouth,  with  the  feehngs  of  a  true  cavaHer  spurned  the  counsel, 
attributed  to  Claverhouse  and  Major  White,  that  all  the  prisoners 
should  be  put  to  death  ;  and  this  humanity  was  afterwards  animad- 
verted upon  both  in  Scotland  and  at  Court.'  The  Duke  of  York 
thoug-ht  what  the  Kingf  afterwards  said,  'that  if  he  had  been  there 
they  should  not  have  had  the  trouble  of  prisoners.'  To  this  Monmouth 
made  a  true  soldier's  reply  :  'He  could  not  kill  men  in  cold  blood  ; 
that  was  only  for  butchers.'" 

Sharp  was  fully  avenged  ;  the  '  Blynk '  was  over.  The  tide  of 
battle  was  turned  before  ten  ;  at  noon  the  Council  in  Edinburgh  were 
discussing  the  news  of  victory,  brought  by  a  galloper,  Lundin,  thirty- 
five  miles  as  the  crow  flies.^  A  courier  left  immediately  for  London, 
but  found  himself  outstripped  by  a  flying  packet  of  Robert  Mein, 
postmaster,  whom  the  Council  soon  cited  for  his  impertinence.^ 
While  Monmouth  remained  in  Clydesdale  a  few  days  establishing  the 
peace,  and  Claverhouse  and  other  captains  of  horse  rode  through 
Ayrshire  avenging  Drumclog,  the  prisoners,  a  sorry  gang  roped  in  Twelve  hun- 
pairs,  stripped  in  terms  of  the  Act,  some  wearing  '  mutches,'  were  on  enter  EdTn""^ 
their  way  to  Edinburgh,  which  they  reached  on  Tuesday.  Outside  ^'^'S.^- 
the  city  they  were  met  by  a  jeering  rabble,  who  insultingly  inquired, 
'  Where  's  your  God  .''  Where  's  your  God  ? '  Their  sufferings  were 
intense.  Any  expression  of  sympathy  rendered  a  friend  liable  to 
similar  treatment  under  many  statutes.  All  were  martyrs  of  the 
Blackadder  type,  and  by  compulsion  now,  and  Blackadder  advised 
them  to  remain  staunch  in  their  bonds.  Monmouth  humanely 
mitigated  their  lot.  For  want  of  room  in  the  common  prisons  the 
majority  were  penned  in  a  vacant  walled-in  part  of  what  is  now 
Greyfriars'  Churchyard — the  'inner'  or  'new  yard.'  The  wounded 
were   confined  in  '  Heriot's  Wark.'     Fresh  captures  increased  their 

'  Wodrow,  iii.  112.  *  Burnet,  ii.  240. 

'  Council's  Letter  to  Lauderdale,  22nd  June:  A(M.  MSS.,  23244,  fol.  16;  Wodrow,  iii. 
113  note.  *  Reg.  Sec.  Cone,  Dec,  260,  nth  July  1679. 

VOL.  IL  2  R 


IH 


THE  COVENANTERS 


Sufferings  in 

Greyfriars' 

Churchyard. 


Proclamation 
of  traitors. 


number  to  fifteen  hundred.'  The  enclosure,  open  to  the  elements, 
was  shelterless  till  in  winter  some  sheds  were  erected.  Few  of  the 
prisoners  were  suitably  clothed.  Their  ale  was  watered,  their  coarse 
bread  stinted,  and  drinking-water  ill  supplied.  They  were  robbed  of 
their  goods,  and  defrauded  of  the  charities  friends  brought  to  them. 
They  stood  by  day,  and  lay  on  the  earth  at  night  in  inclement 
seasons.  The  militia  sentinels  were  hostile,  being  made  responsible 
for  the  captives  ;  and,  on  an  escape,  they  had  '  to  cast  dice  and 
answer  body  for  body  for  the  fugitive.'  Some  escaped.  Surgeons 
were  employed  to  succour  and  keep  alive  the  wounded,  because  the 
Council  had  resolved  to  send  the  most  influential  rebels  to  the  gallows 
and  other  four  hundred  to  the  plantations. 

The  fate  of  the  fighters  who  escaped  from  the  battle  was  nearly 
as  unbearable.  John  Stevenson  of  Cumreggan,  Girvan,  author  of  ^ 
Rare  Soul-Strengthomtg  and  Comforting  Cordial,  joyfully  recorded 
how  he  lay  for  four  months  in  winter  in  a  haystack  :  '  One  night  when 
lying  in  the  fields  I  was  all  covered  with  snow  in  the  morning.  Many 
nights  have  I  lain  with  pleasure  in  the  Churchyard  of  Old  Dailly,  and 
made  a  grave  my  pillow.'  '' 

The  Scots  Privy  Council  did  not  delay  issuing  a  '  Proclamation 
against  rebels,  26th  June  1679,'  declaring  sixty-five  of  the  leading 
insurgents  to  be  traitors,  making  it  a  crime  to  reset  or  have  the 
slightest  dealings  with  them,  and  ordering  the  pursuit  and  appre- 
hension of  them,  persons  failing  in  their  duty  being  held  to  be 
accessory  to  treason.  Some  on  this  list  were  dead,  others  were 
abroad,  and  the  rest  were  the  rebel  ofiicers,  small  landholders,  the 
slayers  of  Sharp,  and  thirteen  ministers.^  A  very  bad  case  of 
oppression  at  this  time  was  that  of  John  Hamilton,  Lord  Bargany, 
suspected  of  Covenanting,  seditious  leanings,  study  of  denounced 
treatises,  friendship  with  Welsh,  expressing  joy  at  the  Primate's 
death,  and  other  offences.  Never  brought  to  trial,  he  was  thrown 
into  Blackness  Castle  prison,  a  victim  of  the  perjury  and  subornation 

'  Wodrow,  iii.  124, 125  ;  Six  Saints,  ii.  131  ;  Passages  in  the  Lives  of  Helen  Alexander,  etc.,  4. 
^  Select  niofc.,  ii.  471.  3  Wodrow,  iii.  1 14  note. 


THE  RISE  OF  CLAVERHOUSE  315 

of  enemies  who  hankered  after  his  estate.  Bargany  demanded  a 
public  examination,  but  was  frustrated  by  the  Duke  of  York.  The 
little  satisfaction  which  he  had  on  his  release  on  bail  in  June  1680 
was  increased  at  the  Revolution,  when  he  raised  a  regiment  for  the 
public  service  and  King  William.' 

The  King  thanked  the  Council  for  their  loyal  communication,  and  The  King's 
while  approving  of  their  proposal  to  transport  three  or  four  hundred  " 
prisoners,  authorised  the  use  of  torture  to  elicit  the  causes  of  the 
rising,  and  ordered  the  release  of  such  as  would  bind  themselves 
never  to  revolt  again.^  The  clemency  shown  by  Monmouth  was  to 
be  more  strikingly  illustrated  by  a  proclamation  of  'His  Majesties 
gracious  pardon  and  indemnity,'  which  was  to  be  interpreted  with  '  all 
possible  latitude  and  favour.'  ^  This  document,  bearing  the  stamp  of 
the  genius  of  Mackenzie  and  the  callousness  of  Lauderdale,  was  a 
trap  to  cause  the  unwary  to  make  new  admissions.  It  concluded  by 
giving  increased  powers  to  '  all  otir  other  judicatures  to  pursue  and 
punish  with  all  the  severity  that  law  can  allow,'  threateners  of  clergy, 
murmurers  against  courts  and  Crown  officials,  and  disseminators  of 
criticisms.  The  sting  in  the  word  murmur  stabbed  the  nation  to  its 
heart.  Every  trooper's  blade  was  now  whetted,  and  every  militia- 
man's fusil  was  charged  anew. 

Monmouth,  after  having  been  feted  in  Edinburgh,  left  Scotland  Chase  of  the 
on  6th  July,  the  very  day  Claverhouse  rode  in  Galloway  close  on  m^o, 
the  track  of  Balfour  and  a  small  party  of  his  Fife  comrades,  who, 
after  secreting  their  wounded  leader  in  a  den  at  Waterhead,  escaped 
into  Douglasdale.*  Welsh  and  Balfour  were  in  a  tight  corner,  the 
more  that  the  friendly  lairds  of  Carrick  warned  Welsh  of  keeping 
company  any  longer  with  the  notorious  '  Burgle.'  After  many  a 
chase  and  hairbreadth  escape  in  the  shires  of  Stirling,  Perth,  and 
Fife,  the  men  of  Magus  Moor  separated,  and  Balfour  escaped  to 
Holland  in  October.     Claverhouse's  westland  route  was  marked  by 

'  Wodrow,  iii.  235,  236  note.  -  Ibid.,  116  note. 

^  Aldis,  List,  2168  ;  Wodrow,  iii.  118  note;  State  Papers,  412,  fol.  265. 
•  State  Papers,  412,  fol.  259  ;  Kirkton,  473. 


3i6  THE  COVENANTERS 

evidences  of  rapine,  torture,  and  shedding  of  blood.  He  was  in  his 
element,  for  the  sacrificial  track  of  blood  was  now  sanctified  by  law.' 
The  soldiery  may  not  have  been  so  inhuman  as  the  persecuted 
made  them  out  to  be,  but  every  fresh  instruction  was  an  incitement 
The  Act  of  to  ferocity.  The  operation  of  the  Act  of  Indemnity  was  immediate. 
Many  prisoners  took  the  oath  to  rise  no  more  in  arms — an 
acknowledgment  of  rebellion — and  were  released.  Unfortunately 
they  received  no  written  discharge,  and  at  home  found  themselves 
to  be  suspects  still  chargeable  under  other  statutes.  Visitors  were 
permitted  to  enter  the  prison  and  try  conciliation.  Four  ministers, 
Kennedy,  Creighton,  Jamison,  and  Johnston,  tried  to  induce  them  to 
take  what  the  irreconcilables  called  'The  Black  Bond.'^  Blackadder 
wrote  dissuading  them  from  being  ensnared.^  The  slowness  of  the 
Council  in  bringing  the  ringleaders  to  doom  was  displeasing  both 
to  the  King  and  to  Lauderdale  ;  and  a  process  was  ordered  without 
delay.  To  mark  the  royal  detestation  of  the  Archbishop's  murder, 
the  King  commanded  that  nine  prisoners — one  for  every  assassin — 
should  be  convicted,  and  hanged  in  chains  on  Magus  Moor,  for 
owning  the  slayers. ''  This  order  led  to  the  examination  of  the 
prisoners  with  these  questions :  '  Was  the  late  rising  rebellion .-' 
Was  the  death  of  the  Archbishop  murder  ? '  The  result  was  the 
furnishing  of  a  list  of  the  most  obstinate  or  conscientious  opponents 
of  the  Government.  The  growing  horrors  of  prison  broke  down  the 
fidelity  of  some  who  sought  liberty  on  the  Crown's  terms.  This 
created  a  disruption,  when  a  coterie  of  AduUamites,  under  Robert 
Garnock,  a  fiery  blacksmith  from  Stirling,  refused  longer  to  worship 
with  the  supplicants,  on  the  ground  that  their  petition  was  a  defection 
acknowledging  the  rising  to  be  sinful.  To  quell  war  in  the  jail  the 
Council  gave  the  brawny  leader  of  the  disruption  an  oratory  to  him- 
self in  the  Iron  House,  and  made  secret  arrangements  for  deporting 
petitioners  and  disruptionists  without  distinction.* 

'  Wodrow,  iii.  120-2  ;  Kirkton,  475  ;  Martyr  Graves,  124.      In  Galston  Churchyard  is  a 
memorial  of  '  Andrew  Richmond  .  .  .  killed  by  Bloody  Graham  of  Claverhouse,  June  1679.' 
-   Wpdrow  AfSS.,  xxxvi.  17.  '  Six  Saints,  i.  53,  54. 

*  Letter,  26th  July  :  Wodrow,  iii.  127.  ''  Wodrow,  iii.  130  ;   T/ic  Scots  IVorthies,  466. 


THE  RISE  OF  CLAVERHOUSE  317 

The  Council  had  two  notable  field-preachers  ready  for  the  altar —  Two  clerical 
John  Kid,  captured  in  a  bog  a  few  miles  from  Bothwell  Bridge,  anV^~.  ' 
with  a  sword  in  his  belt,  and  chaplain  John  King,  seized  on  his  way 
to  Arran  by  Captain  Creichton.  This  herald  of  peace  had  two 
pistols  in  his  belt.  The  tale-weaving  Swift  makes  Creichton  at 
Bothwell  Bridge  spy  this  '  braw  muckle  kerl  with  a  white  hat  on  him 
and  a  great  bob  of  ribbons  on  the  cock  o't,'  a  phenomenal  dress  for 
a  Puritan,  who  swore  he  left  the  field  before  the  battle  began ! '  The 
Council  expected  important  revelations  from  the  two,  and  put  Kid 
in  the  horrid  boots  to  assist  his  memory.  They  had  no  plot  to 
reveal.  At  their  trial,  on  28th  July,  their  story,  told  in  evidence 
and  petition,  was  that  they  were  conventicle  preachers,  but  so  far 
from  being  disloyal  rebels,  they  advised  the  armed  brethren  to  return 
'  to  loyalty  and  Christianitie.'  Kid  further  pleaded  that  Monmouth 
had  given  him  quarter,  and  that  he  carried  a  short  sword  merely  to 
disguise  himself  from  being  known  as  a  preacher.  King  went  further, 
and  protested  that  he  did  not  know  that  the  Balfour  party  were  the 
assassins,  was  actually  a  prisoner  of  the  insurgents,  had  deserted  at 
Bothwell  Bridge,  and  rested  on  the  Proclamation.  Their  confession 
of  being  at  conventicles  and  carrying  arms  was  damnatory  enough. 
Their  request  to  lead  proof  was  ignored.  The  altar  was  ready,  and 
the  judges  were  in  a  hurry.  The  assize  sent  them  to  the  gibbet  at 
the  Cross  and  their  heads  and  right  hands  to  the  Netherbow  Port  to 
preach  there  with  Guthrie's." 

That  day — 14th  August — on  which  Kid  and  King  were  executed  joy  at  their 
was  a  gala  day  in   Edinburgh.      With  every  pomp,   roaring  guns,  j^^^^"""^! 
ringing  bells,  and  other  rejoicings  at  the  Cross,  the  authorities  in  1679- 
the  morning  proclaimed  the  Royal  Indemnity,  '  commanding  all  our 
judges  to  interpret  this  our  remission  and  indemnity  with  all  latitude        , 
and  favour.'      In  the  afternoon  the  interpretation  took  the  form  of 
the  two  preachers  dangling  with  all  possible  longitude  at  the  same 

>  Memoirs,  36  ;  Wodrow,  iii.  133  ;  The  Scots  Worthies,  409-11. 

'  Wodrow,  iii.  132-6  ;  Petitions  of  Kid  and  King  :  Add.  JlfSS.,  23244,  fol.  45  ;  Hid.,  47  ; 
Laud.  Pap.,  iii.  176,  177;^ ;  //ist.  A'ot.,  i.  228,  229  ;  Booi  of  Adjournal,  l6th-2Sth  July  1679. 


3i8  THE  COVENANTERS 

gay  Cross.  Their  testimonies  are  the  delightful  expressions  of  valiant 
manliness,  Christian  faith,  and  Covenanting  honour.'  Both  victims 
repudiated  the  charge  of  disloyalty.  King  specially  adjured  the 
bystanders  to  pray  for  their  persecutors  and  to  obey  the  civil 
authorities  '  in  the  Lord.'  That  sense  of  humour  so  seldom  associated 
with  men  libelled  as  sour  fanatics  did  not  forsake  the  fearless  pair 
as  they  walked  hand  in  hand  to  the  gallows,  Kid  smilingly  remark- 
ing to  the  '  braw  muckle  kerl '  at  his  side  :  '  I  have  often  heard  and 
read  of  a  kid  sacrifice.'  Each  left  a  wife  and  one  child  to  mourn 
his  loss. 

The  smell  of  blood  must  have  lingered  long  in  the  nostrils  of  the 
four  judges  who  wrote  assuring  King  Charles  that  the  execution  of 
Mitchell  was  a  duty,  and  'we  are  conscious  of  our  own  innocencie."'' 
Six  bishops,  also  enthroned  beside  the  bloody  altar,  wrote  to  Lauder- 
dale, whom  they  styled  '  the  general  patron  of  the  Church  under  God 
and  our  Royal  Magistie,'  praying  him  to  continue  his  care  of  the 
afflicted  Church.  So  the  political  policy  of  rope  and  axe  was  the 
prelatic  one  as  well.* 
Trial  of  On   the   1 2th   November,  the   trial    of  thirty-three    prisoners   in 

bond!'^°  ^  Greyfriars,  who  refused  to  take  the  bond,  began.  The  judges  treated 
them  with  a  show  of  lenity,  taking  each  one  aside  to  persuade  him 
to  take  the  bond  never  to  rise  in  arms.*  Five  or  six  held  out.  '  The 
justices  by  their  sentence  ordained  the  five  to  be  hanged  up  in  chains 
in  Magus  Moor  [on  the  i8th  November]  to  expiate  and  appease  the 
Archbishop's  ghost  who  was  there  murdered,  for  tho'  they  were  none 
of  the  immediate  actors  of  it,  yet  they  were  accessory  for  they  would 
not  call  it  murder.'*  Their  testimonies,  recorded  in  Naphiali,  afford 
indications  of  having  been  amended  by  some  pious  notary  who 
frequented  jails.  The  sufferers  express  themselves  more  naturally 
when  'settled  upon  the  ladder.' 

'  Cf.  later  editions  oi Nafhtali  for  these.  -  i/th  July  :  Add.  MSS.,  23244,  fol.  H. 

'  Ibid.,  fol.  41.  •*  Fountainhall,  Decisions,  i,  62. 

^  Ibid.,  63.  A  warrant,  dated  26th  July  1679,  to  h^ns  the  slayers  of  Sharp  in  chains 
on  Magus  Moor  was  sent  down  to  Scotland  :  another,  dated  15th  August,  ordered  the  execu- 
tion of  obstinate  rebels  :   Warrant  Book,  195,  241-2. 


THE  RISE  OF  CLAVERHOUSE  319 

Thomas  Brown,  an  Edinburgh  shoemaker,  said  it  was  his  first  Thomas 
and  last  visit  to  Fife ;  that  he  rose  in  defence  of  the  Gospel,  and  '  if  " 
this  day  every  hair  of  his  head  were  a  man,  and  every  drop  of  his 
blood  were  a  life,  he  would  cordially  and  heartily  lay  them  down  for 
Christ  and  this  cause  for  which  he  is  now  sentenced,' 

Andrew  Sword,  a  weaver  from   Borgue,  sweetly  sang,  '  O  taste  Andrew 
and  see  that  God  is  good.  .  .  .   None  perish  that  Him  trust'  (Psalm 
xxxiv.).     He  had  never  seen  a  bishop  in  his  life,  and  would  not,  he 
said,  '  exchange  my  lot  for  a  thousand  worlds.' 

James  Wood,  from  Newmilns,  had  never  seen  a  bishop,  and  con- J^^mes  Wood. 
fessed  that  his  infirm  arm  and  halberd  had  been  at  Bothwell,  and  that 
it  was  his  desire  to  the  Lord  '  that  He  would  let  me  die  a  martyr.' 

John  Waddell,  from  New  Monkland,  was  a  staunch  Covenanter,  John  Wadaeii. 
willing  to  become  '  a  hinging  witness '  against  the  evils  of  the  day, 
and  '  not  a  whit  discouraged  to  see  my  three  brethren  hinging  before 
mine  eyes.' 

The  most  touching  scene  of  all  was  when  John  Glide,   'a  poor  John  ciiJe 
ploughman  lad,'  as  he  styled  himself,  left  his  weeping  mother  and  her  ^g^^Vovember 
family  at  the  gallows-foot,  in  order  to  '  welcome  Lord  Jesus ' — the  lad  '^79 
being  certain  that  his  dutiful  execution   of  Watson,  the  butcher  in 
Glasgow,  was  no  barrier  to  his  sanctification  and  his  elevation   to 
angel-hood.     Men  of  that  courageous  and  also  devout  type  were  a 
force  in  the  land  not  to  be  despised  and   not  to  be  readily  exter- 
minated.    On  the  1 8th  November  they  were  hanged,  first  on  a  great 
gibbet  on  Magus  Moor,  then  wrapped  in  chains,  and  left  to  rot  there. 
A  stone  marks  the  place  of  their  execution.' 

On  the  black  morning  of  the  1 5th  November,  two  hundred  and  shipwreck  of 
fifty-seven  prisoners,   in  a  gang,  were  hurried  from  Greyfriars  down  ■njur'^entl'^ 
to  the  Pier  of  Leith  for  transportation  to  a  ship  lying  in  the  roads, 
chartered  by  William  Paterson,  merchant  in  the  city,   to  take  them 
to  the  plantations."     For  twelve  days  more  the  ship   rocked  at  her 
anchor,   with   her  suffocating  hold  stowed  full  of  the  unfortunates : 

'  Martyr  Graves,  182,  187,  193  ;  Fleming,  Ham^hook  of  St.  Andrews  (1902),  119-21. 
2  Hist.  Not.,  1.  246. 


320  THE  COVENANTERS 

through  other  twelve  days  of  tempest  she  plunged  seeking  the  Pent- 
land  Firth,  with  the  unsanitary  horrors  experienced  in  Greyfriars 
multiplying  all  the  time.  On  loth  December  she  tried  an  anchorage 
off  Deerness.  At  night  the  popish  captain  battened  down  the 
hatches,  as  the  rising  storm  drove  the  vessel  ashore  to  be  broken  in 
halves ;  the  captain  and  crew  scrambled  ashore  and  barbarously 
battered  those  prisoners  who  had  cut  their  way  out,  back  over  the 
rocks  into  the  raging  sea,  so  that  probably  not  more  than  fifty  were 
dashed  to  land  alive.  On  bleak  Scarvating  the  drowned  were 
buried.i 
Legal  processes  The  Privy  Council  had  its  hands  full  of  lists  of  processes  against 
andoppres-      Qygrt  rebels  and  absentees  from  the  musters,  who  were  punishable  by 

sions.  '■ 

death ;  but  their  extra  labours  were  compensated  for  by  the  hope  of 
forfeitures.  The  Council  was  instructed  to  announce  the  establish- 
ment of  circuit  courts  at  seven  centres  in  the  troubled  districts,  to 
have  Porteous  (portable)  Rolls  of  rebels  prepared,  and  to  hang  up 
in  every  county  in  Scotland  lifelike  effigies  of  the  Magus  Moor 
assassins,  so  that  they  might  be  recognised,  10,000  merks  and  an 
indemnity  being  offered  for  Balfour  and  Hackston.- 

The  clerks  of  court,  with  the  aid  of  local  informers,  sheriffs, 
justices,  incumbents,  proceeded  to  make  up  the  Porteous  Roll  of 
all  rebels  and  to  take  an  inventory  of  their  goods.  Innocent  persons 
were  often  registered  and  falsely  sworn  against,  a  regular  trade  of 
bribing  and  perjury  being  initiated  before  the  suspects  were  sum- 
moned to  court  to  exculpate  themselves.  The  result  of  this  was  that 
Favourites  Court  favourites  and  loyal  gentry  were  enriched  with  the  heritable 
enriched  with   property,  and  the  officers  and  soldiery  carried  off  the  movables  of  the 

forfeitures.  ,  ,  t-,        i  •  r       i  i         •  i    •       •    -i       /■ 

downtrodden  Presbyterians,  many  of  whom  lay  immured  in  jails  for 
long  periods.  A  striking  instance  is  that  of  Alexander  Hamilton  of 
Kinkel,  who  having  broken  with  Episcopacy,  found  himself  outlawed, 
intercommuned,  his  house  turned  into  a  garrison  and  displenished, 
his  family  thrown  out,  his  money  filtered  away,  and  himself  cast  into 

'  Wodrow,  ill.  131  ;  Hind  Let  Loose,  193  ;  Shields,  Hist,  of  Scot.  Presly.,  33. 
'  Proclamation,  14th  August  1679  ;  VVodiow,  iii.  140  note. 


THE  RISE  OF  CLAVERHOUSE  321 

prison  twice.^  This  was  the  kind  of  'oppressions  which  make  wise 
men  mad,'  as  the  grievances  were  described  in  the  Supplication  to 
Monmouth  in  1679.  The  favoured  of  the  Crown  who  received  the 
forfeitures  were  designated  '  donators,'  and  on  their  instructions  the 
insolent  soldiery  became  shameless  spoliators  where  they  pleased. 
Even  the  Duke  of  Hamilton  had  to  complain  of  the  violence  of  the 
agents  of  the  Earl  of  Glencairn,  who  was  donator  of  the  movables  in 
the  parish  of  East  Monkland,  and  he  got  the  military  recalled." 

The  country  groaned  under  these  exactions,  despite  the  kindly  Monmouth's 
efforts  of  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch  and  Monmouth  to  obtain  a  recall  of  j,g„gj,cy. 
obnoxious  legislation.  He  succeeded  in  securing  'A  Proclamation 
suspending  laws  against  Conventicles,  June  29,  1679,'  which  authorised 
the  remission  of  fines  and  other  disabilities  to  the  confessedly  peace- 
able, and  the  licensed  enrolment  of  loyal  field-preachers,  one  for 
each  parish,  with  authority  to  dispense  the  Sacraments,  provided  they 
were  not  in  the  last  rebellion  and  gave  a  bond  for  good  behaviour. 
The  Act  applied  to  the  Lowlands  south  of  Tay,  and  excepted  the 
environs  of  Edinburgh,  St.  Andrews,  Glasgow,  and  Stirling.  The 
cautionary  bond  of  six  thousand  merks,  according  to  Brown,  was  a 
new  form  of  disestablishment.^ 

This  third  Indulgence  was  of  short  duration.  Early  in  July,  the  The  third 
prison  doors  were  opened  for  ministers  and  conventiclers  willing  to  "  "sence. 
accept  the  terms  of  the  Indulgence.  Some  refused,  but  were  liberated 
on  finding  caution  to  appear  when  called  upon.  The  emancipated 
ministry  met  in  August  and  tried  to  rehabilitate  their  decadent  system 
of  Pre.sbytery,  and  soon  fifteen  quasi-parish  ministers  took  up  their 
new  role  of  Crown  licensees  in  various  districts. 

Monmouth  returned  to  Court  to  report,  what  he  had  spoken,  that 
'a  gallanter  gentry  and  more  loving  people  I  never  saw.'  After  the 
return  of  the  Duke  of  York  from  Holland  the  influence  of  Monmouth 
soon  waned,  and  he  was  ostracised  to  Flanders  on  24th  September. 
Lieutenant-General  Thomas    Dalyell  now  commanded  the  forces  in 

'  Wodrow,  iii.  145.  '-'  Ibid.,  146. 

^  Banders  Disbanded,  50;  Wodrow,  iii.  14Q  nolp.  152. 

VOL.  II.  2  S 


3-2  THE  COVENANTERS 

Scotland,  and  was  accountable  to  the  King  alone.  His  commission 
is  dated  ist  November  1679.  His  men  began  the  chase  of  the  Balfour 
gang  and  all  refusers  of  the  bond.  Sequestrators  were  appointed  to 
manage  the  properties  seized,  and  the  country  swarmed  with  these 
vampires. 

Two  other  proclamations  were  published  on  13th  November — the 
first  prohibiting  parishioners  who  had  not  taken  the  bond  going  to 
hear  the  licensed  preachers,  and  the  second  giving  the  peasantry  who 
had  not  taken  the  bond  still  another  chance  to  do  so.^ 

The  quarrel  between  some  Scots  nobles  of  the  Moderate  party  and 
Lauderdale  was  still  proceeding,  and  came  to  a  height  when,  on  the 
King's  birthday  1679,  the  English  House  of  Commons  presented  an 
address  to  the  King,  accusing  Lauderdale  of  giving  dangerous  counsels, 
and  demanding  his  removal  from  office.  The  grievances  of  the  Scots 
Indictment  of  politicians  were  expressed  in  a  memorandum  entitled  '  Some  particulars 
and  his  policy,  of  fact  relating  to  the  administration  of  affairs  in  Scotland  under  the 
Duke  of  Lauderdale,'  etc.  It  was  a  serious  indictment  of  the  executive, 
and  an  epitome  of  the  iniquities  of  the  period.  In  its  printed  form 
it  created  a  sensation.  The  Council  defended  itself  The  King  him- 
self called  the  case,  the  complainants  having  advocates  to  explain  it. 
Sir  George  Mackenzie  answered  for  the  Crown.  The  King,  13th 
July,  decided  that  the  faithful  Lauderdale  was  'most  unjustly  used,' 
that  the  judicatories  were  calumniated  by  libellers,  who  were  hence- 
forth to  be  silenced  as  poisoners  of  the  people,  and  that  the  Council 
merited  his  thanks  for  hanging  'Mitchell,  that  enemy  of  society.'^ 
Hamilton  and  the  Moderate  party,  who  had  complained  of  Lauder- 
dale's '  excessive  greatness,'  were  outgeneralled  again.  The  pro- 
nouncement boded  ill  for  Presbyterians  generally.  It  boded  worse 
when  the  Duke  of  Albany  and  York  crossed  the  Borders,  and  on  4th 
December,  by  the  King's  command,  took  his  seat  in  the  Privy  Council 
in  Edinburgh  without  taking  the  oath.  This  was  an  intolerable  exer- 
cise of  supremacy  in  view  of  the  existing  crisis  in  England  over  the 
exclusion  of  James  from  the  throne,  the  debates  on  which  he  was  glad 

'  Wodrow,  iii.  157  note.  2  Ibid.^  iii.  158-71. 


THE  RISE  OF  CLAVERHOUSE  323 

to  escape  from.  Rothes,  Argyll,  Moray,  Hatton,  and  Mackenzie 
had  the  manliness  to  protest  against  York's  intrusion.'  Tweeddale 
imagined  that  York  would  checkmate  Lauderdale  in  the  north  ;  and 
York,  to  serve  his  own  purposes,  pleaded  for  toleration. 

The  Lord  Advocate  now  made  a  dead  set  against  tlie  disaffected  Forfeiture  of 
lairds  in  Dumfries  and  Galloway,  and  early  in  July  had  thirty-five  south-west. 
of  them  forfeited  and  dispossessed.  Among  these  were  Patrick 
M'Dowall  of  French,  whose  estate  went  to  Claverhouse ;  John  Bell 
of  Whiteside,  afterwards  shot  by  Lag  ;  John  Gibson  of  Auchenchain  ; 
John  Gibson,  younger  of  Ingliston,  afterwards  shot  by  the  dragoons 
of  Douglas  and  Livingston,  his  property  going  to  Douglas  of  Sten- 
house  ;  William  Fergusson  of  Caitloch  ;  Alexander  Gordon  of  Earl- 
ston  ;  James  Gordon  of  Craichlaw — the  lands  of  the  last  three  were 
given  to  Colonel  Edmond  Maine,  Major  Theophilus  Ogilthorpe,  and 
Captain  Henry  Cornwall ;  and  Robert  MacLellan  of  Barmagechan, 
afterwards  banished  to  New  Jersey.''  The  absentees  from  the  muster* 
of  the  militia  included  many  Covenanters  who  had  not  appeared  in 
the  rising.  Lauderdale  found  the  machinery  of  the  Justiciary  Court 
too  slow  to  undertake  the  multitudinous  business  of  prosecuting  these 
men,  and  he  transferred  its  functions  to  the  Privy  Council,  whose 
procedure  was  simplicity  itself,  —  namely,  summons  of  accused,  his 
non-compearance,  forfeiture,  appearance  of  a  donator  or  sequestrator 
on  the  land,  and  finally  the  disappearance  of  the  victim.  The  year 
closed  with  the  signing  of  a  warrant  that  certain  persons  should  be 
'  gratified  with  shares  of  the  forfeitures,'  and  among  the  number  was 
Claverhouse.' 

'  Letter,  6th  November  1679  :  Add.  MSS.,  23245,  fol.  21  ;  Letter  that  York  was  not  to  take 
oath,  30th  November  1679  '■   l^'^arrant  Bopk,  328. 

^  Act.  Pari.  ScoL,  viii.  315,  323;  Martyr  Graves,  411,  444,  225-7  ;  l^'arrani  Book,  464, 
2 1  St  April  1680,  for  Freuch. 

3  27  December  1679  ■   Warra7tt  Book,  393. 


324  THE  COVENANTERS 


CHAPTER    XXVI  I 


THE    REMNANT 


Suffering,  the 


More  than  is  warranted  by  evidence,  writers  prejudiced  against  the 
Covenanters  have  laid  too  much  stress  upon  the  alleged  retaliatory 
actions  and  methods  of  parties  of  men  who  are  supposed  to  have 
been  illustrators  of  the  Covenanting  spirit.  Harassed  though  the 
Lowland  Covenanters  were,  their  faith  in  most  cases  transmuted  their 
sufferings  into  an  ineffable  delight  and  glory  for  Jesus'  sake,  rather  than 
into  yearnings  for  revenge.  That  ecstasy  incited  them  to  wish,  pray 
for,  and  expect  misery  and  martyrdom  in  Christ's  interest,  and  the 
just  judgment  of  God  on  evil-doers.  Patient  suffering,  rather  than 
cult  of  the  wrestling,  was  the  cult  of  all  save  the  extremest  hillmen,  of  the  type 
persecu  e  .  ^^  James  Skene,  who  declared  it  to  be  his  duty  to  kill  soldiers,  '  when 
they  persecuted  God's  people.' '  On  the  other  hand,  the  gallant 
Hackston  confessed  'we  were  forced  to  fight'  at  Airsmoss."  '  Rebel- 
lion to  kings  is  unbeseeming  Christ's  ministers,'  wrote  Rutherford  to 
Lady  Kenmure.^  The  outlawed  MacWard,  in  his  Poor  Man's  Cup 
of  Cold  Water,  counselled  the  persecuted,  as  'Jewells  surrounded  by 
the  cutting  irons "...  to  '  seal  from  your  own  experience  the  sweet- 
ness of  suffering  for  Christ,'  since  'there  is  an  inherent  glory  in 
suffering  for  Christ.'  His  friend,  John  Brown,  discussed  this  subject 
in  ten  chapters  in  his  work  entitled  Banders  Disbanded,  and  while 
stating  that  there  was  'a  proper  season  of  suffering,'  declared  that  it 
required  a  divine  revelation  to  tell  when  a  tyrant  was  discharged.' 

King,  in  his  dying  testimony,  asserted  :  '  I  have  been  loyal,  and  do 
recommend  it  to  all  to  be  obedient  to  higher  powers  in  the  Lord.'  * 

1  Cloud  (Thomson's  edit.),  83.  2  /^/^^  jg  3  Letter,  4. 

^  Pages  92,  93.  '-  NaplUali,  364. 


THE  REMNANT  325 

Retaliation  was  no  duty,  according  to  Eraser  of  Brea,  who  declared  : 
'  We  are  to  be  submissive  to  the  commands  of  superiors,  not  to  imitate 
their  practice.''  Nisbet  of  Hardhill  confessed  :  '  I  have  longed  these 
sixteen  years  to  seal  the  precious  cause  and  interest  of  precious  Christ 
with  my  blood.'  ^  This  was  not  the  malignant  spirit  of  a  bigoted 
slayer  of  his  fellows  who  held  different  views.  Something  more 
than  irrational  obstinacy,  something  nobler  than  frantic  superstition, 
underlay  the  life  and  morale  of  martyrs  who  kissed  the  rope  that 
hanged  them.  '  If  we  had  a  hundred  lives,  we  would  willingly  quit 
them  all  for  the  truth  of  Christ,'  was  the  gallant  farewell  of  the 
Enterkin  Pass  rescuers  when  upon  the  scaffold. 

While  Holyrood  House  rang  with  the  revelry  of  the  Court  of  The  Duke  of 
the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  York,  as  it  had  never  done  since  the  lute  ^"'^^ '"g^°  ^' 
of  Rizzio  roused  the  galliards  of  Queen  Mary,  the  Lowland  moors 
resounded  with  the  plaintive  psalms  of  the  Remnant,  who  prayed  and 
fasted  on  account  of  their  latest  misfortune,  in  the  arrival  of  the 
popish  heir  to  the  Crown. ^  Claverhouse  accompanied  the  Duke 
from  England,  and  had  the  Prince's  ear.  Long  after  the  slave-ship 
had  recrossed  the  seas  bringing  him  back  from  the  plantations,  John 
Mathieson  of  Closeburn  wrote  :  '  None  knows  the  marrow  and  sweet- 
ness that  is  to  be  had  in  suffering  and  contending  for  Christ,  but 
them  that  has  felt.'*  In  the  same  strain  wrote  John  Wilson  :  'The 
pleasantest  time  that  ever  I  had  was  when  I  was  joined  with  that 
suffering  remnant,  while  hunted  as  partridges  upon  the  mountains 
in  following  the  persecuted  gospel.' °  These  threnodies  formed  a 
marked  contrast  to  the  jubilations  of  the  hierarchy  and  the  'orthodox 
clergy.' 

Richard  Cameron  returned  from  exile  in  October  1679.     In  Hoi- Return  of 
land  he  was  preceded  by  the  ill-natured  gossip  that  he  was  a  mere  c/n,ejon^ 
babbler  against  the  Indulgence  ;  but  his  intercourse  with  the  ministers  October  1679. 
there  proved  that  he  was  '  a  man  of  a  savory  gospel  spirit,'  and,  as 

•  Select  Biog.,  ii.  368.  =  Ibid.,  40S. 

^  Domestic  Ann.,  ii.  403-5  ;  Arch.  Scot.,  i.  499;  Burnet,  ii.  248,  254;  Six  Saints,  i.   226; 
Terry,  yo/i«  Graham,  8g. 

*  Coll.  of  Dying  Testimonies,  187.  ^  Ibid.,  167. 


326  THE  COVENANTERS 

MacWard  announced,  fit  to  'go  home  and  lift  the  fallen  standard,' 
all  alone,  too,  if  the  home  ministry  would  not  help  him.  Before 
leaving  Holland,  Cameron  was  ordained  by  Brown,  MacWard,  Hog, 
and  Koelman,  in  the  Scots  Church,  Rotterdam.'  Before  lifting  his 
hand  off  Cameron's  head,  MacWard,  as  if  reading  off  a  mental  vision, 
pathetically  exclaimed  :  '  Here  is  the  head  of  a  faithful  minister  and 
servant  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  shall  lose  the  same  for  his  Master's 
interest,  and  shall  be  set  up  in  the  publick  view  of  the  world  before 
sun  and  moon.'" 

On  his  return,  Cameron  found  the  whole  country  seething  with 
repressed  discontent,  met  countless  persons  to  whom  Bothwell  was  a 
bitter  memory,  and  discovered  only  a  remnant  who  preferred  suffering, 
to  compliance  with  a  hated  rule,  and  death,  to  encouragement  of  those 
evils  certain  to  follow  the  advent  of  a  popish  prince.  Cameron,  in 
the  romantic  enthusiasm  of  his  youth,  was  mentally  pledged  to 
an  idealised  conception  of  Protestantism,  shorn  of  every  defection 
and  innovation — Indulgence,  Cess,  Black  Bond — a  pietistic  system 
The  spirit  of  demanding  all  for  Christ.  In  this  respect  he  was  like  Zinzendorf, 
but  without  his  extravagances  and  fanatical  errors,  and  like  him,  too, 
was  almost  a